Shine Bright, Shine Far...

I am supposed to be working on my research paper but all I can think about is star theory. My paper is about the Onnagata in Kabuki Theater - they are the males who specialize in playing female roles. One in particular that I am studying, Yoshizama Ayame (famous in the early 1700s), was well known for his roles of very strong females and his dramatic scenes rather than his dancing (as many other Onnagata were known for). This got me thinking more about my film theory class last semester, in which we studied star theory and auteur theory. All three of these things share one thing in common, and that is that people created a name for themselves by having a distinct style. Film stars even melded their character types into their real selves so they would become a single entity composed of their private life and their performance. This caused audiences to become more interested in their private lives, thus making stars ultra famous! Nowadays, stars don't exist in the same way because the amount of performance opportunities has been somewhat diminished. However, a modern example of this type of star would be someone like Ben Stiller. He is well know for being moral and intense in many comedy films.

WHY IS THIS ON YOUR COSPLAY BLOG TIM!?

I am so glad you asked. I have been thinking about fame in the cosplay community for a very long time (no doubt thanks to Rosie's obsession with it). I have come to realize that the acquisition of fame in the cosplay world happens in a very similar way to that of film stars. Take PikminLink for example. What is she well know for? Cosplay every single link costume ever, naturally. People, no doubt, began to associate her real self with the aesthetic of Link and now, when people see her as other costumes they are not nearly as satisfied (even if they are freaking amazing). PikminLink is also prominent at many conventions which allows people the opportunity to interact with her. This and the combination of the internet side of the cosplay community gave people the outlet to gossip and talk about her.

I want to address how this affects the average cosplayer. If you have a huge repertoire of costumes that are mostly unrelated to each other you are probably in no danger of becoming exceedingly famous in the cosplay community. However, if you intend to specialize a certain role and you execute it well, you might create a name for yourself. You must realize that the more attention you have the more people are going to associate your character with your real self. More specifically, if you are going to cosplay as an intense diva, people are going to begin to think you are an intense diva *COUGHSHERYLNOMECOUGH*.

I recently had a purge of my future cosplays album on facebook and I think I am going to have another and possibly add more to it. Not claiming to be famous, but I have skill and all the right things going for me to be a quazi cosplay celebrity. I need to make sure that the characters I want to cosplay don't clash with my personality and intended aesthetic too much. I think I am going with a few different aesthetics actually. These include, but are not limited to: magic, adventure, and structure. Those are the main ones but I am sure other things will creep in somewhere.