Fansplaining: Tall Princess
| Podcast Episode | |
|---|---|
| Fansplaining | |
| Prev Episode · Episode #45 · Next Episode | |
| Episode Title: | Fansplaining: |
| Length: | 1:09:58 |
| Featured: | Teresa Nguyen aka Tall Princess |
| Date: | April 5, 2017 |
| Focus: | cosplay |
| External Links: | Episode at Fansplaining.com |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fansplaining: Tall Princess is a podcast by Flourish Klink and Elizabeth Minkel.
For others in the series, see Fansplaining
Introduction
Flourish and Elizabeth interview Teresa Nguyen, who went from novice seamstress to cosplay master in less than four years. Topics covered include screen-accuracy vs. interpretation, “professional cosplayers,” and the experience of going to a con in costume. They also discuss the Fansplaining Definitions Survey and play a pair of voicemails from a listener who shares her experiences in North African fandom and some thoughts on the current state of Riverdale fandom discussion.
Links
- Episode, show notes, and transcript: 45: Tall Princess, Archived version
- Tumblr Promotional Post, Archived version
Topics Discussed
- The Defining Fanfiction survey they were undertaking at the time
- Cosplay and in particular professional cosplay
- Participation in masquerades
- International fandom experiences (a listener letter from a Moroccan fan)
Excerpts
ELM: So as someone who knows nothing about cosplayers or how they think about what they do, maybe you can only speak from your own experience, but one thing I’m curious about is…it probably varies from person to person, but are you more interested in being as accurate as possible? Are you interested in kind of embodying a character and kinda roleplaying, essentially? Or is it a mix? Or…
Tall Princess: For me it’s a little bit of a mix. I’m not as interested in roleplay as some cosplayers are. Some cosplayers are very into it, they’re in character all the time. Depending on what I dress up as, if I’m dressing as a Disney princess, I feel like I need to be in character, because I’m going to be talking to a lot of little kids and they’re expecting it and you don’t want to crush their dreams! So, you know. If I’m dressing as a Disney princess and I’m talking to a little kid, I am a Disney princess. [laughs]
ELM: You’re like “Fuck off, I’m tired.”
Tall Princess: Yeah, that’s not happening! But if I’m talking to adults then I’m just me. But I think a lot of people who are cosplayers are passionate about it and they actually love to make believe they’re that character. They just, that’s something that is fulfilling to them. I think that’s great. The creativity, it’s actually endless, the different combinations of creativity that you can do. For me, personally, I just like making the costume because I’m a nerd about sewing, number one, but I feel some connection to that character personally. But I don’t necessarily wanna be that character. I just want to honor it and kind of pay homage to this fantastic thing that has brought me joy. But when I’m on stage, I’ll try to do some portrayal of the character. I feel like the fans expect it and that it’s kind of up to me to provide that.
A lot of people will go out on stage and just stand there, turn, stand there, turn, OK, look at my costume, and I feel like that’s just a little bit…I don’t wanna say “lame,” because their costumes are definitely not lame, but I feel like stage presence means a lot and that the people in the audience would love to see just a little bit, even if it’s just a shadow of that character that they love that, you know, doing just a little bit of acting up there means a lot to the fans.
FK: A Disney joke, I should say. A Disney joke, God, words. [all laugh] I know that you had some attention because a con was not giving prize money or something like that, I don’t know. Just, what is the costume contest thing like, I guess, is the…
ELM: Also tell us that anecdote in particular, I would also like to hear about this. Tall Princess: Yeah, all right! I'll start with just the costume experience. Costume contest experience. It’s different. It depends on the con. Sometimes it’s just a…there are no monetary prizes, sometimes they give little fandom prizes, like you’ll win a collector’s figurine or something that’s donated by the artists’ alley, those are neat prizes. Prizes are cool and I love one of a kind things, that’s…I love art. So those things for me are worth a lot sentimentally. But sometimes they offer cash prize money, which—of course cash is nice too! I won a 3D printer at the last…
[snipped]...A con is just the perfect place and cosplay contests, the people show up to those things and they are packed. And they wanna see the costumes. It’s a mutual thing. 90% of people who enter those things, they’re there to see the costumes, even the cosplayers. My most rewarding experience is being backstage for hours, just talking to the other entries. Because they’re so amazing! I learned so much about different techniques and what amazes me is the body armor. Just what they go through to make this, they use Worbla and sometimes craft foam and they paint it and it just…it looks like legit armor! I just can’t get over it. So.
ELM: What is “professional cosplayer”?
Tall Princess: That’s a good question. Because I…I’ve struggled with that myself. That term. “Professional cosplayer.” I guess I consider myself a cosplayer but when I was first called a “cosplayer” I was like “What? I’m just a girl making some costumes!” You know. “What is this?”
ELM: Everyone’s gatekeeping themselves! Flourish was doing this earlier. “I don’t cosplay, I only do this and this and this and this but I’m not real!”
Tall Princess: No, well, I think I just didn’t know, I had not heard the term before when I first started doing this [snipped] I fully admit to my cosplaying now. I fully admit. I wouldn’t call myself a professional cosplayer, though, I think that’s a whole other level. The professional cosplayers are the ones who get invited to these cons. They do this for money, that’s what I consider…a professional, when you say “professional” it means you’re getting paid. I don’t think you can just make stuff and say “Hey, I’m a professional cosplayer.” I don’t care if you have a bunch of followers on social media, if nobody is paying you you’re not professional. That’s kind of how I feel just from my other real job where I’m a musician, anybody can call themselves a musician, but you’re not a professional unless somebody’s payin’ you. [laughs]
FK: So there are people who are getting paid to go to cons, just to attend and grace the con with their presence.
Tall Princess: That’s correct. And they are advertised, like, “X cosplayer will be at this convention!” And they have followers who come just because that cosplayer’s gonna be there. And a lot of them are really, I mean, most of them are really dedicated to their craft and the costumes they make are amazing. Somebody’s gonna pay them for that, more…do it! Go!
ELM: So, do you see the…is there a tension? Compared to other kinds of fan creativity, you get this mostly in fanfiction—we’ve talked a lot about fanfiction versus fanart because fanartists increasingly do commissions and are paid for their work. Whereas if you so much as mention monetary compensation in a lot of fanfiction circles it goes very poorly. Is there a tension with…you know, your average non-professional cosplayer, is there resentment or discourse around people who…do people say things like “Oh, you should only be doing this for the love of, the love of fandom and the character and your love of costumes, it shouldn’t be a job”?
Tall Princess: No, no, I don’t…I don’t think there's tension because of that. And if there is, I think that’s a little bit sour grapes. You know what I mean?
ELM: You could say the same for some of the conversations that go on in fanfiction spaces [all laugh] but…
Tall Princess: I just think if you do something and it’s so amazing that somebody wants to pay you for it, well, awesome. You know? And just because everybody can’t do that thing, well, hello! Welcome to capitalism, number one! But I mean, that’s creativity. You find your niche and you do it. And if you’re doing it just for you, great. That’s me. I’m just doing it because I wanna do it. If somebody pays me for it, am I gonna say “No no no, don’t pay me because I’m doing it for the sake of art”? That’s probably not gonna happen, because heck yeah, if you wanna pay me, I will do this for money! Yeah! But if not, I’m OK doing it for myself too. And there’s a sort of freedom to not being paid, also. Once you start getting paid, then here come the rules.
Tall Princess: “You gotta do this, and this, and here are the restrictions,” and I don’t like that, so…there goes your freedom in some sense. So it’s a double edged sword. But I don’t know, a lot of the professional cosplayers get a bad rap because a lot of them expose a lot of skin and that rubs people the wrong way, some people. But it does, you know, it does attract a lot of people too. So it just depends on the overall goals of who hired them and what they wanna achieve, and screen accuracy. Sometimes they’re going for screen accuracy and it’s accurate. [laughs]
FK: I was gonna say, right, people are…are people going to really complain when you’re dressing up as Lara Croft and you’re wearing tiny tiny shorts and a tiny T-shirt. Well, that is actually what she wears, so if you’re gonna say that that’s someone just looking for attention, maybe you should look at why video game characters are designed that way.
Tall Princess: Exactly, exactly. I’m just pretty much against any kind of calling-out if it’s gonna involve just hating on someone. I just think it’s not productive, number one. But you’re right. If you don’t know that character, which I certainly…there are plenty of characters at the cons I go to where I’m like “I don’t know who that is, but that is a really well-made costume.” I’ve approached people and I’ve been like “You look really good, because look at your seam lines, and this is…how did you make this…” and I just get nerded out and I have no idea who they are! [all laugh]