Southern Anthropologist
Abstract
The costumed science fiction, fantasy gaming, or anime fan, dressed as his favorite character, holds a place within the popular imagination as a “true” representation of the fan community, creating an image of this exotic other. That generalized image also contains stereotypes about male fans as being “unmanly” with regard to the understood conception of masculinity in the United States in general and the South in particular. I suggest that through cosplay, the practice of costumed role-play, male fans perform their masculinity in such a way that both acknowledges and subverts the dominant American conceptions while appropriating their power to provide meaning in the context of the fan community. Through participant observation and interviews at MechaCon 3.0 and MechaCon IV in Lafayette, Louisiana, I demonstrate how the performances involved in both the private creation and the public display of cosplay costumes by male fans embody this appropriation and transformation of Southern masculinity to become meaningful to male participants in the fan community.
Relational Format
journal article
Recommended Citation
Broussard, Jonathan
(2009)
"(Ad)Dressing Masculinity: Male Cosplay Performance at Fan Cons,"
Southern Anthropologist: Vol. 34:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/southern_anthropologist/vol34/iss1/3
