Responding to: Hot Topic’s Cosplay Shirt
The controversy du jour in the geek community is the cosplay shirt Hot Topic was selling, and subsequently pulled.
The shirt in question.
Honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is. I’m not a cosplayer, or even really a costumer, so maybe that’s why I’m not offended. (Plus, I don’t really take anything Hot Topic does seriously.) I also have a tendency to be overly optimist. So when I read “Do it right or not at all” I don’t read it as a “you better have everything right or else.” I think “doing it right” means doing it with passion. Which really, I don’t think there’s much of another way to cosplay.
Cosplay or costuming often takes lots of planning, money, and time. I mean sure, you can throw together something like my Hermione costume pretty easily. But even then, you have to really like a character to be into dressing up like them. And even if it’s an easy costume, it still takes planning. Which is why I don’t often cosplay. I’d actually love to have this shirt to wear to conventions in an ironic sort of way. “Right or not at all” while I’m not in costume (implying I wouldn’t have done it right), would be funny to me.
What about you? Do you think this shirt super controversial? Is it another example of a major corporation “not getting it?”
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Nicole is a Software Quality Engineer, music collector, and chronic project starter. In her free time she enjoys reading trashy romance novels, catching up on her game backlog, and bourbon.
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It didn’t bother me, and I don’t think it’s controversial, but I can also understand why some people might read into it as something bad. I have no clue what they meant when they came up with it, but there are a few people who have an elitist attitude when it comes to cosplay/costuming, and would most certainly say this to offend casual cosplayers (though they would probably do it anonymously online).
As far as the shirt itself goes, I personally don’t find it clever, amusing, or controversial. I’m not sure why anyone made a big deal about it, and honestly I would not have given it a second thought if other people weren’t so upset by it.
I see your interpretation of ‘doing it right’, but I don’t feel like the majority of people who’d purchase the shirt would feel the same way.
I feel about the same way about this shirt as I do about automobile stickers of cartoon figures peeing on various logos: it’s okay to not like things, but all your outward hatred does is make it clear that you’re just a jerk about it.