Cosplayin': "The Best"

For those of you who've come to hang out with me on my blog more than a few times, you know that I write about a myriad of topics.  I can be all over the place at times (hence, the "Random" in "Random SMOOVEness").  One new topic that I'll be adding to the blog is my experiences in the world of cosplay and geek conventions.  Today's entry will be the first of many, entitled "Cosplayin'".  

A few days ago, I came across a cosplay article, which featured famous (or, "professional", if you will) cosplayer Yaya Han.  The writer of the article lists 10 reasons as to why Yaya is the "best cosplayer".  I don't think this article has gone viral or anything, but it definitely has the cosplay community talking.  I won't get too far into what's being said here, but suffice it to say that opinions of her vary greatly.

My 10 cents on the matter?  She's done amazing cosplays of some of my favorite characters (Psylocke and Baroness, specifically), and she was pretty nice to me for the few minutes that I was able to interact with her, so I got no beef with her.  I understand that many others have experiences with her that are polar opposites of mine, and therefore may not like her, and that's ok.  And I'm not even going to touch the argument as to who the best actually is.  Cosplay, in and of itself, is not a sport to compete in, so there's no official set of criteria or standards, making any attempt at figuring out who's "number 1" futile at best.

We could spend hours debating opinions about Yaya, but that's probably being done in numerous other places as I type this.  The other reason that this article is so polarizing is what really caught my attention:  not Yaya herself, but the idea of anyone being labeled "the best" cosplayer.  I think this concept in and of itself is what has struck a nerve with cosplayers the most.

You see, the cosplay community is supposed to be all about having fun and being supportive of each other.  We're already trying to deal with issues of bullying, sexual harassment, even body and gender shaming.  Adding unnecessary competition to the mix definitely doesn't help.  Outside of actual cosplay contests that take place at conventions, no one is out here trying to out-do someone else.  And unless a person chooses to be on a contest stage in that capacity, nobody wants to be subjected to judging and ranking and such.

At the end of the day, we all just want to celebrate and connect over our passion for geekery.  No one is out here to "win" cosplay.  So, while I don't think the author of the article meant to stir up any bad feelings or anything, I do see why many people are up in arms about the claim that a particular cosplayer is "the best".

Of course, me being me, I have to add a shot off devil's advocacy to this.  I do think that we need to stay away from competition and comparisons in cosplay, as it only causes animosity and divisiveness.  But I also think many of us in the community can be a bit oversensitive when it comes the word "best" being used.  Sure, it may not be the best adjective to use (I personally prefer to say "you're my favorite [insert character]" or "your [cosplay of character] is awesome"), but saying that someone is the best is not a knock on anyone else.  There are some who would take "you're the best" as a back-handed compliment of sorts.  They feel like the compliment giver is putting others down in the process.

While I do agree that a compliment that in turn puts down others is not a compliment at all, I cannot agree that saying someone is the best is the equivalent of that.  Unless someone is verbatim saying "Your [cosplay of character] is the best, all the others suck", saying one person is the best is not an automatic insult to anyone else.  Ricky Bobby's outlook on life should not apply to cosplay, or the rest of life for that matter.  This may be an unpopular opinion in the cosplay community, but if I'm dressed in my Snake Eyes costume and someone says to me "Your Snake Eyes is the best I've seen!", I'm not going to apologize for taking that as a compliment.  I'm definitely not going to let that statement go to my head, as I know my costume could still use some work, and I've seen others do the same character much better than me.  But if it was good enough to cause that person to have that opinion, I'm not going to make him feel bad for it.  I'm going to say "thank you" and keep it moving.

All I'm really trying to do here is provide different angles and a sense of balance to this.  Ideally, as a community, we'd like to stay away from competing with and judging each other.  Loosely claiming that this person or that person is the best can definitely hinder that goal.  However, if anyone wants to share their opinion, ill-informed or othewise, that someone is the best, they are well within their rights to, and that person is most likely not taking a shot at everybody else by making that statement.