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AP PHOTO/ANDY WONG
COSTUMES TO
WATCH FOR
Hipster Ariel,
female
versions
of Captain
America
and The
Avengers,
female Dr.
Whos, male
Sailor Moons,
steampunk
versions of
everything
CULTURE
THE CULTURAL ONES
Like any good subculture worth its salt, cosplayers will often make
conscious decisions to reflect — or subvert — a cultural norm.
Dressing as a character of a different gender, has been huge in the
past few years, according to Pantozzi. Referred to as Rule 63 (an
internet rule establishing that, for any given male character, there
is a female version of that character), female versions of male
characters are far more common, mainly because there’s more social
stigma attached to the reverse. Writer and feminist Dr. Who blogger
Courtney Stoker told io9, “Women passing as men are destabilizing
gender by illustrating how easy it is to perform the opposite gender,
by showing that all gender performance is performance, since
cosplay is fundamentally performative.”
Also keep an eye out for any hipster Ariels, a meme started by model
Traci Hines. “She added black-rimmed glasses to her Ariel costume
and ]