Opinion needed please!

[nzfluffysheep.livejournal.com]

Alright, so I'm involved in a small cosplay group, and we'll be cosplaying The baltic trio and Poland here pretty soon and there were a few things that we were wondering what people would think about and if it would be appropriate or not. At first we decided not to do this cause we didn't want to be insulting, but we decided to get extra opinions first. So here it goes~

We were going to do an "out of war zone" cosplay, where we get the makeup and make ourselves look as if we been to war. We are questioning if this is insulting since this is a sensitive topic and therefore want some opinions of if we should do this or not.

Comments

[yuuago]

The rule of thumb that I follow with regard to fanwork (including cosplay as fanwork, here) is that if one suspects others will find something insulting, then it is likely that this impression is right, and doing it is best avoided.

Regarding this particular idea, the topic is indeed quite sensitive, and to be on the safe side, I would caution against doing it - especially if the period you'd be costuming for is 20th-century. Regarding other periods, it might vary, though.

[nzfluffysheep.livejournal.com]

thank you very much for the responce, it helps a lot!

[fivedayslater.livejournal.com]

If you have to ask, then just don't do it. I will give you props for wondering and thinking about these things instead of just doing them.

If you're not specifying/implying a specific war/incident, it might be okay, but it might be better to just play it safe and not.

[nzfluffysheep.livejournal.com]

yeah, we weren't going to imply a specific war or incident, however we don't want other people to interpret that wrong and then look down on us for it, luckily there was a way to get opinions about it, thank you for the response.

[aduial-peredhel.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with yuuago and fivedayslater. If you even think someone might find it insulting, chances are someone will.

Cosplaying war outfits is okay since that is really showing off your skills as a costumer (I myself am going to cosplay War of Succession Austria and Hungary). But making yourself look like you've been to war...I can see a lot of people taking a lot of issue with it and their minds running on different tangents.

Good luck to you thought. :3

[nzfluffysheep.livejournal.com]

yeah, we might mean no harm in it, but other people would see it differently. Its best to play safe and not do it rather then doing it, I'll tell my cosplay group all the feed back I got from this. Thank you for the comment.

[whittertwitter.livejournal.com]

First off, good on you for actually asking if this would be okay or not. :)

Second, I think it might be okay to do the war makeup as long as you were doing pre-20th century uniforms, like the Grunwald strips. But for 20th century, I'd stick with just the uniforms without the makeup.

[hoshiko-2000.livejournal.com]

I agree with Whittertwitter that good on you for asking first, but no, I personally don't think this is a good idea. At the end of the day it's your choice, but if you go ahead with a post 20th century war theme at the com, you can probably expect to receive some abuse from fellow com-goers. People could take it the wrong way, misinterpret it, or find it offensive. A pre-20th war theme would probably go down better, but there could still be people who would find a war theme of any sort offensive. I get the impression that you were planning on doing this tastefully and respectfully, and I respect you for that, but fellow com-goers could still take it the wrong way, especially considering the reputation Hetalia cosplayers have regarding coms (thanks to some certain dickwads) :( .