Participatory Fandom Part 2 - Roleplay and Cosplay

Apologies that this blog post is a little late but this will be 2nd post looking into the participatory practices that fans take part in, roleplay and cosplay!

Roleplay

Roleplay is where fans impersonate one of their favoured characters of a media text and interact with others who do the same. It is typically done online via forums, social media, or email. Social media tends to be one of the more popular picks as fans can create profiles for their favoured characters and fully throw themselves into the role and make them seem more life like.

On Facebook you can find tonnes of roleplay groups dedicated to different fandoms, with hundreds or sometimes even thousands of members! These fans can post their muses that they would like to act out with a specific character or characters, and other fans impersonating a specific character mentioned may be interested in roleplaying that muse also. These two fans can then collaborate and create a new story via personal messaging with the characters from the original text with no boundaries and can let their imaginations run free. 

This collaboration and the gratification gained from it, is different to that of roleplaying in person by LARPing and cosplaying. As there is less indication when roleplaying online that there is another person playing the character (except when talking out of character to plan). As Booth (2010) explains 'Offline we can tell the difference between a TV character and a physical person because of the scrren; one is mediated, the other is not.' (p. 161) In person, there is more constant awareness and more signifiers that the person is not actually the character. Especially if they are supposed to be an animated character where the body is 'squashed and stretched'. 

Lots of fans also tend to be introverts and are shy or find it hard to socialise outside of the screen, especially with strangers. They are afraid of having their interests mocked. The cloak of anonymity level that fans can have from creating a character profile and joining groups online that share the same interests, gets rid of the anxiety and let's them breathe easily. For some, cosplay is just too outside their comfort zone

Participatory fandom is still a new aspect of new media that many, mainly older generations, find strange or struggle to understand, so it is sometimes looked down upon. Despite the idea of fandom being around for many years, the efficient level of participation and communication now possible with tools like web 2.0 and social media can be quite overwhelming to generations that simply did not grow up with this technology.

Cosplay
Cosplay is where fans dress up as their favoured character and can chose to act like them if they so wish. It is more well known than online roleplaying and there are now many spaces and opportunities that fans can go to, to take part in this type of participation, like comic cons and other conventions. This mode of participatory fandom is becoming increasingly more normalized and popular, with many families now choosing to attend events also. There are 'a sizeable number of people who have been active in fandom for most or all of their adult lives and who are now raising children who are active fans' themselves. (Jenkins 1992, p. 49)

(Cosplayer: Lauren Walker)

At these events, many fans from all sorts of fandoms and all over the world can come together and show their nerdy-ness. Meet-ups are organised for a different fandoms and fans can interact with each other in costume and character, take photos, or simply talk about their favoured media text. Many commercial brands have now jumped on this bandwagon and see it as a valuable marketing opportunity. However, with this rising commercialism and popularity comes some issues.

Some fans are starting to become deterred from going to big conventions like MCM London, not liking the amount of bustle that a niche interest of fandom normally provides, and rising prices to simply get into the conventions. Many are also not pleased with the rising elitism of cosplayers present in many fandoms.

This is due to the rising normalization. As fandoms get bigger, the fear of being mocked lowers and confidence rises. Unfortunately, some let it consume them. Though Hills (2002) suggests this is due to fan culture naturally being 'a social hierarchy where fans share a common interest while also competing over fan knowledge, access to the object of fandom, and status.' (p. 46). Nevertheless, there are still plenty of friendly fans and fandoms at conventions, and many fans are just looking to meet and interact with people who have the same interests.

References:

Booth, P. (2010) Digital Fandom: New Media Studies. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Hills, M. (2002) Fan Cultures. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers. Great Britain: Routledge