My response to straysheep1012/stop cosplaying Lara
May 29, 2013 23:48:06 GMT
Lori Croft and Jaywalker like this
Post by drcroft on May 29, 2013 23:48:06 GMT
Thanks to the The Archaeology of Tomb Raider for highlighting this post:
straysheep1012:
…I can’t stand them anymore.
The whole Tomb Raider/Lara Croft tag is full of them.
Since the reboot was released every second girl thinks she’s perfect for cosplaying Lara Croft.
No you’re not!! Just because Lara looks more “ordinary” now doesn’t mean she looks like an ordinary girl.
I know most of you don’t think the way I do but I don’t care.
Lara is very special too me. She’s a beautiful, strong, extraordinary girl and no one could ever be like her.
Oh boy....where do I start?
Perhaps it is fair to say I believe this is a minority view with the responses this post had on tumblr being overwhelmingly negative to his/her opinion. Yet there is something in this post that gnawed on a fear I had back in November.
MCM tickets were a surprise xmas present for my boyfriend, I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to deck myself out in some fantasy finery. I knew very little about cosplay, but I loved to dress up. So I began thinking who could I be? It was obvious when I thought about it, I wanted to be the woman I had grew up, the woman who inspired me into academia and adventure, the woman I never did end up going to a fancy dress party as because 'they [the parties] are just for kids'. I wanted to be Lara Croft, just for a day.
Then the unnecessary worries came, do I go for the new one or will it make me look like a jumped on the bandwagon; or do I go for old and look like someone way behind on the times? Is Lara even acceptable at a comic convention? I ended up sending an email to Sara (trcosplay.com) to ask, in a polite way, would I be ridiculed for cosplaying Lara? It seems so stupid now but I truly felt like that then. The reason being that I was putting something very dear to me at the forefront of strangers attention. During high school I was picked on for still liking Pokemon, I gave away all my consoles and most of my games (except for TR1 ironically) because I believed I should be more grown up. I regretted it as soon as I did it. I may be in my 20s now but those sneers of 14 year old girls still pop up every now and again. This is what that post reminds me of.
Yes there are many Lara cosplayers, but each one is unique, bringing their own flavour to a commonly seen character. Let me tell you why I decided to cosplay Lara...because I wanted to. Doing so made me visible as a TR fan at the expo which resulted in me talking to a wide variety of people I might never had done dressed normally. And it felt good, so damn good to share my interest on the outside rather than the inside after all these years. Lara is special to so many people, but no one person owns the right to say she is all mine and you can't do anything with her because it upsets me. Seriously, grow up. Lara has always been ordinary looking, to some degree, with her brown hair, hazel eyes, white skin and basic clothes. It is what she does that makes her extraordinary to the fans. It also makes her accessible, which is only a good thing.
It annoys me, views such as in the post above, dictating choices through the illusion of perfection. Cosplayers don't need to be perfect, just respectful. Respectful to the franchise they are cosplaying and respectful to each other; in the end we are all just fans.
straysheep1012:
…I can’t stand them anymore.
The whole Tomb Raider/Lara Croft tag is full of them.
Since the reboot was released every second girl thinks she’s perfect for cosplaying Lara Croft.
No you’re not!! Just because Lara looks more “ordinary” now doesn’t mean she looks like an ordinary girl.
I know most of you don’t think the way I do but I don’t care.
Lara is very special too me. She’s a beautiful, strong, extraordinary girl and no one could ever be like her.
Oh boy....where do I start?
Perhaps it is fair to say I believe this is a minority view with the responses this post had on tumblr being overwhelmingly negative to his/her opinion. Yet there is something in this post that gnawed on a fear I had back in November.
MCM tickets were a surprise xmas present for my boyfriend, I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to deck myself out in some fantasy finery. I knew very little about cosplay, but I loved to dress up. So I began thinking who could I be? It was obvious when I thought about it, I wanted to be the woman I had grew up, the woman who inspired me into academia and adventure, the woman I never did end up going to a fancy dress party as because 'they [the parties] are just for kids'. I wanted to be Lara Croft, just for a day.
Then the unnecessary worries came, do I go for the new one or will it make me look like a jumped on the bandwagon; or do I go for old and look like someone way behind on the times? Is Lara even acceptable at a comic convention? I ended up sending an email to Sara (trcosplay.com) to ask, in a polite way, would I be ridiculed for cosplaying Lara? It seems so stupid now but I truly felt like that then. The reason being that I was putting something very dear to me at the forefront of strangers attention. During high school I was picked on for still liking Pokemon, I gave away all my consoles and most of my games (except for TR1 ironically) because I believed I should be more grown up. I regretted it as soon as I did it. I may be in my 20s now but those sneers of 14 year old girls still pop up every now and again. This is what that post reminds me of.
Yes there are many Lara cosplayers, but each one is unique, bringing their own flavour to a commonly seen character. Let me tell you why I decided to cosplay Lara...because I wanted to. Doing so made me visible as a TR fan at the expo which resulted in me talking to a wide variety of people I might never had done dressed normally. And it felt good, so damn good to share my interest on the outside rather than the inside after all these years. Lara is special to so many people, but no one person owns the right to say she is all mine and you can't do anything with her because it upsets me. Seriously, grow up. Lara has always been ordinary looking, to some degree, with her brown hair, hazel eyes, white skin and basic clothes. It is what she does that makes her extraordinary to the fans. It also makes her accessible, which is only a good thing.
It annoys me, views such as in the post above, dictating choices through the illusion of perfection. Cosplayers don't need to be perfect, just respectful. Respectful to the franchise they are cosplaying and respectful to each other; in the end we are all just fans.