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As I was saying: I'm the antichrist.
I absolutely have to copy this convo into a single post.
Basic scenario: a friend of mine and I was talking about this particular character. She wanted to cosplay him. I told her to do it, by all means, but noted that she could do alternative versions of the char, like, for example, a mirror universe one, in which, the character is a powerful Magister in a country, which is essentially built on slave labor. I posted an outfit design on tumblr, and a post, in which I was pondering about which staff I should craft. Then, this transpired.
Anonymous Asked:
You're making a cosplay of your slavery AU? I'd... really advice against that. Especially if you're white.
Me: I- decided to be a mature person and deleted the angry, and probably offensive rant. So I’d just like to gently ask: w h y
Like, pretend I’m a newborn and explain it to me. Just, and I’m merely adding this for a glimmer of clarity, you might like to know that I’m European, you don’t know anything of the AU and I’m not cosplaying alone.
Anonymous Asked:
That you're European doesn't answer whether you're white, but I take it you are? The subject is too full of horrifying, real-life, historical context the effects of which are felt to this day for "what if this character was a slave and this other one was their master?" to be neutral, cute fanfic fodder that can't hurt anyone. I honestly don't see a way to go about it respectfully. Can I ask you why do you want to make this particular AU instead of literally anything else?
Me: Rule of cool.
There is absolutely no other reason, aside that Fenris would look insanely cool in black and gold and lyrium crystal earrings.
First, let me address one particular point of your reasoning: the skin color. How is this even relevant? I’m white AF, I’m caucasian and my skin actually lacks some pigmentation so I’m really, really white. But why does it even matter? I can’t CP a slave, because white ppl used to enslave POC, shame on me? If I were a POC, it would make it right? You have to be this tall to ride this attraction? White ppl were never enslaved all throughout history?
Or is your issue with slavery itself, because it’s horrible? It’s definitely that, but so is, IDK, murder? Incest? Wrecking havoc on planets? So we shouldn’t cosplay characters who committed any of those? Whelp, I just recalled the SWAT team. The number of anime chars. Alice of Wonderland. Cersei. The Ringwraith. Phobs’ Sauron. The Jokers. The bodysuit Titan. And Fenris himself. Oh dear, that girl who CPd Anders just propagated some serious iconoclasm and genocide.
I’d put up my hands and nod along if I had been thinking about cosplaying a real life person in a momentary lapse of reason. You don’t cosplay Nazis. You don’t CP Malcolm X if you’re white. You probably don’t cosplay a beaten up slave even if you are POC, and you probs don’t cosplay famous conquistadors, either. That’s kinda tasteless.
But this is where my European upbringing comes up; because we think differently. Here, we think CP is for fun instead of social justice. If I walked through the local con in this particular CP, no-one would bat an eyelash. Partially because they wouldn’t have an idea who I’m supposed to be. =3 And if they recognized the characters, they wouldn’t see any negative meaning attached. Mostly because we do not equate fantasy with real life.
We’re safe to explore a plethora of horrible things through our art and writing; rape, murder, slavery, oppression, child abuse and a lot more WITHOUT agreeing with those things in the slightest. We are allowed to torture characters to the limits of our imagination, because who are we hurting with it? What crime is getting committed? Which culture am I appropriating by dressing up as an elf? What soft of horrible acts am I advocating just by standing there and looking good? All the POCs I’ve ever seen at local cons in the past ten years were a handful of Asians. I live at the middle of Europe. Everyone’s white here. Who’s going to get hurt and offended? What sort of indicator will there even be of the characters’ status aside our word…? (And me obediently tailing Fenris, because fuck it, I love the concept of Parallel!Dimension!Slave!Anders, and I’m gonna fucking own the part.)
Why is it that people bang their chests claiming that cosplay should be all-inclusive, then immediately setting boundaries, banning certain people from doing certain things, imposing their beliefs on the rest of the world and completely misunderstanding what appropriation is?
tl;dr: I firmly believe that simply dressing up as a fictional character who committed/suffered through horrible things is NOT, in any way offensive to anyone. Otherwise we should take a lot of offense every time we visit a con.
Anonymous Asked:
How does wearing black and gold with crystal earrings mean you need to dress up as a slave owner though? Just put on the fancy clothes without the slavery roleplay. Why is it so important to you that your cosplay involves slavery specifically? Also ps, "AF" is African American Vernacular English, so since you're white please don't use AAVE.
Me: Well, what the everloving fuck am I to do if the character I want to CP is a slave owner? I think I’ve covered this in my previous post
What sort of RP did you expect, Fenris leading me around on a leash? Him publicly beating me into submission? Me licking his feet or something? You legit do not make the slightest of sense, and I’ve already explained my point.
At this point, I’m too busy laughing at your ridiculous reasoning. Please stop stalking me if you hate my guts.
My next life goal’s going to be to convince someone to CP Danarius.
Also, ‘af’ is used throughout tumblr, so if you want to ban its usage, you have your work cut out for you.
Anonymous Asked:
ok but why do you want to dress up as a slave owner so badly? Like what is it about reducing another person to property that fascinates white people so much? Someone tries to tell you you're being hurtful, and your response is to tell them how much that makes you laugh. Is it any wonder I have doubts in your ability to handle a subject like slavery respectfully?
Me: Because the character in question is a Tevinter Magister, and unfortunately, Tevinter Magisters - even the tolerable ones - own slaves. Like, Tevinter is based on slave labor. And Fenris in this particular setting is as much an asshole as Danarius, so after he killed his former owner, he didn’t release all the slaves. He kept everything. So if I want to dress up like him, and boy, do I want to, b/c he’d look incredibly pretty in fancy Tevinter finery, then… where was I going with this? I think some details got lost in the background.
Since you obviously have pretty clear ideas about this, please tell me how am I going to handle the subject.
Because, my plan was painting the lyrium lines on this friend, make sure her elf ears and white wig look great, then dress her up very, very prettily in fancy Tevinter fashion, then I was going to wrestle my hair under the wig, make sure my top covers the sports bra’s straps, don the rest of the garbs and hope I won’t die in them. Then, I though we could wander around the con, fangirling about Fenders and brainstorming scenarios that’ll never get written. Possibly secure ourselves someone with a camera and do a little photoshooting.
Do you also harass Dorian cosplayers? =3 [Note: Dorian is a slave owner, and he doesn't see anything wrong with that canonically.] Y’know, I’d take you a lot more seriously if you posted with your actual account. The fact that you’re not willing to give your name to your ideas speaks volumes. Also, why does it bother you so much that someone two continents and an ocean away, in a country where absolutely no-one is going to feel even slightly uncomfortable about the topic is doing something you don’t agree with?
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I'll update if they write me back. <3 I hope they do, because I have the perfect reply planned.
Basic scenario: a friend of mine and I was talking about this particular character. She wanted to cosplay him. I told her to do it, by all means, but noted that she could do alternative versions of the char, like, for example, a mirror universe one, in which, the character is a powerful Magister in a country, which is essentially built on slave labor. I posted an outfit design on tumblr, and a post, in which I was pondering about which staff I should craft. Then, this transpired.
Anonymous Asked:
You're making a cosplay of your slavery AU? I'd... really advice against that. Especially if you're white.
Me: I- decided to be a mature person and deleted the angry, and probably offensive rant. So I’d just like to gently ask: w h y
Like, pretend I’m a newborn and explain it to me. Just, and I’m merely adding this for a glimmer of clarity, you might like to know that I’m European, you don’t know anything of the AU and I’m not cosplaying alone.
Anonymous Asked:
That you're European doesn't answer whether you're white, but I take it you are? The subject is too full of horrifying, real-life, historical context the effects of which are felt to this day for "what if this character was a slave and this other one was their master?" to be neutral, cute fanfic fodder that can't hurt anyone. I honestly don't see a way to go about it respectfully. Can I ask you why do you want to make this particular AU instead of literally anything else?
Me: Rule of cool.
There is absolutely no other reason, aside that Fenris would look insanely cool in black and gold and lyrium crystal earrings.
First, let me address one particular point of your reasoning: the skin color. How is this even relevant? I’m white AF, I’m caucasian and my skin actually lacks some pigmentation so I’m really, really white. But why does it even matter? I can’t CP a slave, because white ppl used to enslave POC, shame on me? If I were a POC, it would make it right? You have to be this tall to ride this attraction? White ppl were never enslaved all throughout history?
Or is your issue with slavery itself, because it’s horrible? It’s definitely that, but so is, IDK, murder? Incest? Wrecking havoc on planets? So we shouldn’t cosplay characters who committed any of those? Whelp, I just recalled the SWAT team. The number of anime chars. Alice of Wonderland. Cersei. The Ringwraith. Phobs’ Sauron. The Jokers. The bodysuit Titan. And Fenris himself. Oh dear, that girl who CPd Anders just propagated some serious iconoclasm and genocide.
I’d put up my hands and nod along if I had been thinking about cosplaying a real life person in a momentary lapse of reason. You don’t cosplay Nazis. You don’t CP Malcolm X if you’re white. You probably don’t cosplay a beaten up slave even if you are POC, and you probs don’t cosplay famous conquistadors, either. That’s kinda tasteless.
But this is where my European upbringing comes up; because we think differently. Here, we think CP is for fun instead of social justice. If I walked through the local con in this particular CP, no-one would bat an eyelash. Partially because they wouldn’t have an idea who I’m supposed to be. =3 And if they recognized the characters, they wouldn’t see any negative meaning attached. Mostly because we do not equate fantasy with real life.
We’re safe to explore a plethora of horrible things through our art and writing; rape, murder, slavery, oppression, child abuse and a lot more WITHOUT agreeing with those things in the slightest. We are allowed to torture characters to the limits of our imagination, because who are we hurting with it? What crime is getting committed? Which culture am I appropriating by dressing up as an elf? What soft of horrible acts am I advocating just by standing there and looking good? All the POCs I’ve ever seen at local cons in the past ten years were a handful of Asians. I live at the middle of Europe. Everyone’s white here. Who’s going to get hurt and offended? What sort of indicator will there even be of the characters’ status aside our word…? (And me obediently tailing Fenris, because fuck it, I love the concept of Parallel!Dimension!Slave!Anders, and I’m gonna fucking own the part.)
Why is it that people bang their chests claiming that cosplay should be all-inclusive, then immediately setting boundaries, banning certain people from doing certain things, imposing their beliefs on the rest of the world and completely misunderstanding what appropriation is?
tl;dr: I firmly believe that simply dressing up as a fictional character who committed/suffered through horrible things is NOT, in any way offensive to anyone. Otherwise we should take a lot of offense every time we visit a con.
Anonymous Asked:
How does wearing black and gold with crystal earrings mean you need to dress up as a slave owner though? Just put on the fancy clothes without the slavery roleplay. Why is it so important to you that your cosplay involves slavery specifically? Also ps, "AF" is African American Vernacular English, so since you're white please don't use AAVE.
Me: Well, what the everloving fuck am I to do if the character I want to CP is a slave owner? I think I’ve covered this in my previous post
What sort of RP did you expect, Fenris leading me around on a leash? Him publicly beating me into submission? Me licking his feet or something? You legit do not make the slightest of sense, and I’ve already explained my point.
At this point, I’m too busy laughing at your ridiculous reasoning. Please stop stalking me if you hate my guts.
My next life goal’s going to be to convince someone to CP Danarius.
Also, ‘af’ is used throughout tumblr, so if you want to ban its usage, you have your work cut out for you.
Anonymous Asked:
ok but why do you want to dress up as a slave owner so badly? Like what is it about reducing another person to property that fascinates white people so much? Someone tries to tell you you're being hurtful, and your response is to tell them how much that makes you laugh. Is it any wonder I have doubts in your ability to handle a subject like slavery respectfully?
Me: Because the character in question is a Tevinter Magister, and unfortunately, Tevinter Magisters - even the tolerable ones - own slaves. Like, Tevinter is based on slave labor. And Fenris in this particular setting is as much an asshole as Danarius, so after he killed his former owner, he didn’t release all the slaves. He kept everything. So if I want to dress up like him, and boy, do I want to, b/c he’d look incredibly pretty in fancy Tevinter finery, then… where was I going with this? I think some details got lost in the background.
Since you obviously have pretty clear ideas about this, please tell me how am I going to handle the subject.
Because, my plan was painting the lyrium lines on this friend, make sure her elf ears and white wig look great, then dress her up very, very prettily in fancy Tevinter fashion, then I was going to wrestle my hair under the wig, make sure my top covers the sports bra’s straps, don the rest of the garbs and hope I won’t die in them. Then, I though we could wander around the con, fangirling about Fenders and brainstorming scenarios that’ll never get written. Possibly secure ourselves someone with a camera and do a little photoshooting.
Do you also harass Dorian cosplayers? =3 [Note: Dorian is a slave owner, and he doesn't see anything wrong with that canonically.] Y’know, I’d take you a lot more seriously if you posted with your actual account. The fact that you’re not willing to give your name to your ideas speaks volumes. Also, why does it bother you so much that someone two continents and an ocean away, in a country where absolutely no-one is going to feel even slightly uncomfortable about the topic is doing something you don’t agree with?
-----
I'll update if they write me back. <3 I hope they do, because I have the perfect reply planned.