Nieke Tebeest / Beyond Believing Cosplay

If you don’t have anything nice to say, then keep it to yourself!

This is one of the first things we’re taught as children when it comes to opinions. It seems the people who most commonly criticise cosplayers are the ones who’ve never cosplayed in their lives. It’s so frustrating!! Is it wilful ignorance or something else? I find myself wondering if those who judge and comment simply don’t want to understand.  

Over the last few weeks I’ve experienced my first “viral cosplay”. Even phrasing it like that seems silly to me. I’ve never experienced this much attention and subsequent unsolicited feedback from people I’ve never met before. It’s been crazy, especially when you think it’s all happening because of a couple of pictures. 

Here’s a little summary on what’s happened and why I’ve decided to write this article. I recently cosplayed Abby from the Last of Us II. I absolutely loved the game and I really connected with it for a number of reasons; the main one being that I’ve always been very into staying fit. As a teen I was a competitive skier and I’ve always loved the gym. Over the last 2 1/2 years I’ve been on a real fitness journey with CrossFit and I was extremely excited to see a muscular woman in a popular game. It was incredible and a real first for this media when it comes to representation. The decision to cosplay her was unquestionable and I immediately made plans with a close friend and photographer, Carlos Adama, for a photoshoot. 

Quite soon after the game came out a lot of people started criticising Abby, and not just for what she did in the game. Most of you probably know, or have heard little snippets of it and to avoid spoilers I won’t go into details in this article, but to say it was divisive among fans is an understatement. It seemed that to justify the hatred for the character, people decided to attack her physical appearance. Some were calling her physique “impossible for a woman”, which was something I didn’t quite understand as it simply isn’t true. Other comments included it just being “physically impossible” and “she would need steroids”, but one of my favourites had to be that “there wouldn’t be enough protein in a post-apocalyptic world”.

On top of to all these ridiculous statements, comments were also made that she “looked too much like a man” which is an issue on so many levels. This was then followed by Laura Bailey (the voice actress for Abby), Jocelyn Mettler (the model for Abby’s face) and Neil Druckmann (the main game creator and many others who worked on the game) being bombarded with abuse online. Crowds stormed to socials to send foul messages and even death threats over their relation to Abby’s character. Do people believe the voice actor, model and creator should be held account for the actions of a fictional character? That’s completely ridiculous. 

 I was well aware that cosplaying Abby would come with a certain amount of backlash, but when the photos started to gather more attention than I expected, the unsolicited comments started to pour in. Many people couldn’t and refused to understand why I had cosplayed her. I needed bigger biceps, to take testosterone and had to lift more. I was even called too skinny and scrawny. This in itself raises a question that has always bothered me… Why do we have to look exactly like the character to cosplay them? And why do all these random people we have never met have so much to say about our appearance?

The thing that frustrated me the most was the lack of knowledge people would have on the subject. It seems people just want to be angry and will take it out on anyone they can. Okay so you didn’t like the game or the character? That’s okay, everyone has an opinion! But neither Laura, Jocelyn, Neil or I have anything to do with that. Abby is none of us because Abby is a fictional character. We just added a little something to our versions of her. Nothing can ever be perfect because there’s no such thing as perfect. It’s mad that someone you will probably never meet, will shout at you for “not being big enough”, “not look like the character” or blame you for the actions of this person in this game that haven’t actually happened. I really feel like some people need a reminder than this isn’t real!!

For me, cosplay will always be about the fun of it. It has never been a “quest” to go viral and if this experience has shown me anything is that If it’s not fun and you aren’t enjoying yourself then maybe it’s time to consider a new hobby. If some faceless stranger on the internet has something to say it can be hard to ignore but it’s probably best to try and not take it to heart. Highlighting it was important to me as I felt like there has been way too much negativity around a character and game I love so much. The hate towards everyone involved with Abby has been shocking. 

I’ll always happily have peaceful and polite conversations with people who might think differently. We’re all human and have our own opinions. But before you shout at someone for not looking like the character, just sit there and think for a second how much fun they might have had being that character for the day. Or how much the character means to them. And maybe… Just maybe, don’t comment or keep it to yourself. It doesn’t need saying, you don’t have to upset someone or ruin someone’s day. Say nothing and be kind because at the end of the day, nobody needs that kind of negativity in their lives.