Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Rise of Cosplay and Escapism from America’s New Normal Economy
My recent The Week column, “Why the rise of cosplay is a bad sign for the U.S. economy,” may be the most read piece I’ve written strictly for the Internet.
It may also be the most misunderstood. Based on the comments and tweets I’ve received, the most common misunderstanding is that I was arguing that the increase in “costume playing” — primarily based on Japanese anime and manga, as well as similar American media — is somehow responsible for the anemic economic recovery. (Lots of comments by cosplayers about how the money they spend on costumes actually helps the economy or how some even turn their hobby into a small business.)
And for that, I partly blame this io9 story on my column: “Apparently The Economic Downturn Is Cosplayers’ Fault.” Or to be more specific, I blame the io9 headline. The actual piece by Rob Bricken, though hyperbolically and theatrically critical, acknowledges that I am saying just the opposite of the headline. Bricken:
To be fair, despite the headline and subhed that seems to indicate that cosplayers are in fact responsible for the sluggish growth of America’s economy, Pethokoukis states it’s the opposite: “It’s not to say that all or even most cosplay aficionados are struggling to find work. It’s only to say that any rise in people fleeing reality for fantasy suggests problems with our reality.”
Bricken goes on to wonder why I am focusing on cosplay as opposed to other possible diversions:
If our economy is driving people to escape from reality, then perhaps television, movies, sports, books, alcohol, drugs, and videogames might be somewhat more recognizable factors than cosplayers. And if that’s the case, then I also have to wonder if maybe — just maybe — this desire to escape is true of people of all ages who are being f—-d over by the lacks of jobs and job growth, people struggling to find jobs and to hold them, who resent their lack of advancement, or more likely their lack of anything resembling job security.
The reason isn’t because I have something against cosplay. As a comics guy with kids who are into anime and manga, I actually think it’s pretty cool and understand all kinds of people participate for all kinds of reasons. The reason I chose cosplay was because I was making a comparison between the Japanese and American economies. From my column:
Indeed, Japan’s Lost Decades have coincided with a major spike in “people escaping to virtual worlds of games, animation, and costume play,” Masahiro Yamada, a sociology professor at Chuo University in Tokyo, recently told the Financial Times. “Here, even the young and poor can feel as though they are a hero.”
So perhaps, to some degree, the rise in cosplay here — at least more recently — similarly reflects escapism from a depressing economic reality for some cosplayers (not all, of course), particularly 20-somethings facing a depressed labor market. So that’s the theory. Connecting cosplay with escapism doesn’t seem like a huge conjectural leap, as Bricken concedes. Neither does io9′s sister publication Kotaku. From its 2013 piece “Cosplayers Are Passionate, Talented Folks. But There’s A Darker Side To This Community, Too“: “Perhaps not surprisingly, there is also an element of escapism to cosplay.”
Now the Kotaku story wasn’t talking about escape from a bad economy, but it is well known — even commonsensically — that we humans look for diversions during tough times. As the consultancy Euromonitor put it in a 2009 report:
With the global financial crisis hitting home for many, all consumers really want is to do is flee from reality: just as they flocked to see Fred and Ginger movies during the Great Depression, consumers are turning to products and media that take their minds off the daily doom and gloom. This new report examines how leisure trends are changing in the face of recession and ongoing digitalisation, how much consumers are spending and what the impact of these changes will be going forward.
Escapism, then, is perhaps a soft metric that reflects sustained economic weakness. And for some, cosplay serves as economic escapism. And from that perspective, cosplay’s increased popularity is a bad sign for the US economy, as it is for Japan’s — though, on the bright side, at least there is something positive to escape to.
Image credit: Tofudevil / Shutterstock.com
I counter-argue that cosplay, in one form or another, has always been a common pastime … of the rich.
For example, the masquerade ball was a popular event from the 14th century until the 19th century.
In the 19th century, the masquerade ball evolved into the “fancy dress party” or “costume ball”, with attendees wearing not only masks but also full costumes.
The first reference to wearing costumes at Halloween is from 1585.
Lots of tribal and pagan cultures have all sorts of ceremonial masks and costumes for religious purposes, with the religious leaders being some of the “wealthiest” members of culture.
IMHO, the only thing that makes cosplay today different from these sorts of events throughout history is that it’s no longer limited to the elite. Western society has become wealthy enough that costume play is accessible to a wider proportion of the population. It is a sign of our prosperity, rather than a sign of decline.
James, I think you are dead-on. Some similar thoughts were swirling in my head just the other week, but you’ve articulated them better than I ever could.
To quote Tolkien.
In many ways I think your article gets at the same point. The economic situation is depressing and confining. To wish to escape from a bad reality or not dwell on it is not only normal it is what keeps one sane. There are dangers of becoming too engrossed in ones fantasies, but then again there are dangers to becoming too engrossed in ones work too.
I’m still struggling with the fact that a Gawker-network site put an intentionally misleading headline on a story dealing a “right-wing” argument.
I’m with Misthiocracy on this as a sign of our prosperity rather than our decline. Certainly we are in the throes of what for us is a significant recession. Of that, there can be no doubt. But ours is also a society that has benefited from many Pareto-improvements. We are so many leaps beyond poverty that our middle-class and lower-classes can engage in “frivolous” economic activity.
One might – instead of writing sociologically oriented pieces – write an economic analysis of cosplay and fandom. How big are these markets? How much do they contribute to our economy? In an era where Gamestop’s 2014 revenue is greater than the revenue of 538 Hollywood films, were our entertainment money is spent matters.
Yes…Gamestop had more revenue than movie theaters had in ticket sales…Gamestop. Not video games…Gamestop.
What does that say about our society? Who cares? I’ll read my Paul Cantor and leave the despair to you.
What does it say about our economy? It says that we have moved beyond worries of mere sustenance.
Or maybe it goes beyond the current economy…maybe when a society reaches a certain level of wealth and sophistication, increasing numbers of people devote themselves to narcissism and escapism…perhaps accelerated by, but not caused by, today’s technology. Maybe it’s as a Martian said in one of Heinlein’s stories:
“My fathers have labored, and I am weary.”
It’s been suggested that the reason no space aliens have shown up on our doorstep is that every society that reaches a certain stage of development devotes itself to videogames or equivalent, and loses the taste for physical-world adventure.
Thoughts on all this at my post Where ARE those space aliens?…with questions on social evolution.
This tendency was explored in the jaw-droppingly awful Depression-era movie Stand Up and Cheer! which imagines FDR appointing a theatrical producer to be Secretary of Amusement charged with providing government-issue escapism to the struggling masses.
I say, I think this whole article is merely a pretense to feature a picture of attractive young women wearing sexy cosplay outfits.
I approve!
I hadn’t thought about this in a long time until I read this post. It seems to me there are some common factors with cosplay and the transformation of Halloween from a kids’ thing to an almost obligatory ritual for adults. In the day, All Hallowed Eve, the day before All Saints Day, and the trick or treating deal was strictly for children. Nowadays, workplaces get into the act. Same reasons?
Maybe, but I think people just have a way of expanding celebrations. Look at how rather mild holidays like St. Patrick’s have turned into all out excuses to party and eat corned beef and cabbage.
I think the utter explosion of cosplay is another sign of the trend of putting off adulthood as well, right along with twenty and thirty something males not getting educations or careers and living with parents. Exceptions apply, of course, but I’ve just seen too many twenty and thirty somethings that haven’t invested in a house or a retirement fund or even a new vehicle, while spending huge sums on costumes, makeups, and travel expenses several times a year. Used to be, much of that money would have went into a savings account for a down payment on the first house. Now its cosplay and convention money.
For adults, Halloween expanded specifically because of expanding sexual mores. Halloween became the time of year when adults could dress up much like the rich used to for costume balls: an excuse for decadence and naughtiness, with the comfort of returning to normalcy the next day. The gay culture especially took this to the next level. In the Bay Area, Halloween has become one big adult bacchanal.
Like Fasching in Germany?
As a person whom makes part of his living working at such Cosplay friendly shows as GenCon and the Origins Game Fair, I would like to make a couple of observations as a counterpoint to the idea that the hobby “reflects escapism from a depressing economic reality.”
1) On some levels Cosplay is a way of demonstrating a certain sort of “uber-fandom” to other fans. For example, it’s one thing to enjoy reading Wolverine comic books, watching Wolverine films, and collecting Wolverine action figures. It’s quite another to work out at the gym, spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on materials, spend countless hours sewing together a costume, and be able to dress up so that you look *just* like Wolverine. (I’ve seen it done more than once.)
Also, people take your picture. Sometimes thousands of people – often getting shots of you holding their baby, hugging them, or shaking their hand. This is very gratifying to certain personalities, especially aspiring actors. The motivation isn’t really economic.
2) As I mentioned above, some of these costumes represent a considerable investment of time and money, and can be a sort of “billboard” for the person who has made them, advertising their skills. That’s capitalism, not depression. You can buy all sorts of costume stuff at these shows, a lot of it made by boutique costumers in small shops. (The steampunk leather goods can be particularly nice.)
3) It’s been going on for quite a while now. In fact, it has roots back in the 1930’s! But the modern incarnation has been with us since the Clinton years. Which represents several economic cycles.
4) You’re all thinking about it too hard. A lot of people just really like to dress up. And now that it’s socially acceptable-ish to, they are.
I was a punk rocker in the 80’s. I had a Mohawk, leaver jacket with spikes on it, combat boots, and various shocking t-shirts. Kind of embarrassing thinking back on it, actually. But my point is that the 80’s weren’t an economically depressed period. It was basically just a rebellious look that got me chicks (and sometimes beaten up) and went with a certain Gen X nihilism that one outgrows in time.
5) Haven’t *you* ever wanted to be Batman? Come on. “I Am… Batman!”
My little sister used to wear women’s dresses, high heels, and floppy hats, pretending to be grown up. That rather sounds like cosplay except that adults are imitating little girls. Does it trend to cross-dressing as well? It appears that people are losing their identities and looking elsewhere to find out what what will emerge.
I think that those people who dress up for the Oakland Raiders and for Star Trek conventions might be part and parcel of this phenomena.
Come to think of it, back in the day, we had people who wore belt buckles touting Coke and Coors. To be sure, I do like Coke and occasionally drink a Coors but I wasn’t keen on being a billboard so I never wore advertising. A bit of an iconoclast I guess.
Masquerade balls was mentioned above. I had never thought of that as escapism, merely some amusement for a prescribed and short amount of time. Whoever was behind the mask was the same person the next day, going back to the life already in progress.
Beam me up Scotty.
Or as John Adams said: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
…and their descendents have the ability to study comic books, video game design, digital filmmaking, and cosplay.
One of the big reasons is that the average workplace has changed.
The “office halloween party” wasn’t really a thing when the majority of the population worked in factories or on the farm.
Today, we work in offices and retail spaces. This is largely why the workplace halloween party has become a thing.
A dracula costume won’t interfere with one’s ability to weave magic with spreadsheets in the same way it would get one killed working a lathe.
One could argue that it goes even farther back. After all, look at “The Great Game” in which Sherlock Holmes fans imagined that the consulting detective was a historical figure rather than a fictional one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlockian_game
What is the substantive difference between “escapism” and “amusement for a prescribed and short amount of time”?
Cosplayers don’t generally dress that way 24/7, after all. Conventions are a “prescribed and short amount of time”.
Used to be, a lot of people blew that money on alcohol, or gambling, or other destructive leisure pursuits.
Basically, we’re talking about where people decide to spend their discretionary leisure resources. I think it’s pretty easy to argue that the variety of choice people have today for where to spend their leisure dollars is a positive compared to the past.
The axiom, “idle hands are the devil’s plaything,” was much more true when there were fewer leisure options, and when a greater proportion of those options were objectively destructive.
Yes, a hobby like cosplay can become harmful when it’s being funded not with surplus leisure dollars but rather with one’s core resources which should be used for necessities … but that’s true of any leisure activity.
In short, many of these arguments against cosplay are pretty much little more than a rewarming of the arguments Thorstein Veblen made back in 1899 with The Theory of the Leisure Class, except that they apply to a wider proportion of the population.
Wasn’t there a increase in people attending movies during the Great Depression? If true, was that not escapism?
Well, there’s a correlation vs. causation question there.
It’s entirely possible (probable) that moviegoing increased during the 1930s because of the introduction of synchronized sound. After all, the first “talkie” (The Jazz Singer) was released in 1927.
A second data point: The late 1920s were a time of consolidation in the film industry, so by 1930 almost all the first-run movie theatres were owned by the Hollywood studios. As such, the increase in moviegoing in the 1930s could have been the result of more professional marketing practices.
IMHO, the biggest genuinely causal effect of the Depression on cinema was, arguably, the introduction of the production code (first adopted in 1930). The desire to censor “sensationalism” and to promote “good values” was (arguably) a result of the economic downturn, rather than a coincidence of timing.
In other words, it’s arguable that the pre-code movies (made when the economy was in full-swing) were more escapist than those that were made during the Depression.
A second data point to support this causal theory: The Academy Awards started in 1929. In other words, one could argue that the Depression marked the film industry’s first efforts to promote itself as an art form rather than as a frivolous luxury.
As one of Ricochet’s more notorious cosplayers (and the only one who was on that show), I’ve been mulling this post and the comments all day. The most basic points about cosplayers: (some of these have been stated above)
As for the why, well, I’ll admit that cosplaying was most appealing when I was working at the shoe store. To go from the service industry, where the general public treats you like crap, to a convention, where the clothes you wear turn you into a star, is pretty darn appealing. And to the extent that this economy means that people do not find meaning in their work, the economy does encourage people to find meaning in their hobbies, particularly those hobbies that result in public adulation.
I do think there is something to the worry that the rise of cosplaying is linked to the extension of adolescence. My friends who are the most serious about cosplay (and their geeky relations the robot builders) are also those who are either single or choosing to be married and childless. On the flip side, my 29-year-old sister who has been nuts about cosplay for years (and is the seamstress for my costumes) finally has her first serious boyfriend and is thinking about marriage and parenthood positively for a change. He’s the one in black with the blaster gun.
There may also be a correlation vs. causation question there. Do they cosplay because they are single, or are they single because they cosplay?
Apropos of nothing, but…
In the mid-to-late 90s, when I was finishing high school and then when I was a university student, there was a bit of a fashion trend where people wore corporate logos that generally aren’t thought of as “fashion brands”, as a way of subverting the very idea of wearing corporate logos.
For example, I had a friend who worked at a semi-famous drug store chain, and when he left that job I asked him for the shirt from his employee uniform. I knew other people who wore McDonalds employee golf shirts, or t-shirts with the logo of weird non-fashion companies like dry cleaners, or moving companies, or whatever.
The companies themselves never saw a dime from this fashion trend, of course. Heck, that was part of the appeal!
“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness…” -CS Lewis.
I think this whole cosplay brouhaha plays into a disturbing trend among conservatives of clinging to the superficial aspects of maturity without looking any deeper. Yes, I’m a 36 year old single man who watches cartoons (yes, including My Little Pony,) wears t-shirts, plays video games, etc.
You know what else I do/have done? I’ve served eight years in Air Force intelligence; I have a four year degree from Texas A&M; I pay all my bills on time, including student loans, and I do it all without receiving one penny from either the government or my parents.
I’m getting a little tired of being told that I’m in some sort of “suspended adolescence” based on nothing more than my choice of entertainment and/or fashion sense.
Dennis Prager argues that marriage and children are a rite of passage to adulthood. It’s falling out of vogue in our society to argue such things, but I’m not entirely persuaded they are wrong.
Also, In Defense of Bronies, by Gavin McInnes. [CoC warning for the link] (at takimag, which also has articles by John Derbyshire, and Pat Buchanan, if that means anything.)
Yes, marriage and children are rights of passage. However, “childish” hobbies like cosplay and video games are no more incompatible with marriage and children than being a sports fan, member of the bowling team, or [insert your hobby here].
In fact, attention seeking cosplay works better with kids. Sure, you can dress up, but if you really want a million cameras around you, dress your child up. (I’m now pretty good friends with his mom via Facebook. She’s a stay-at-home mom with a daughter as well as her son here, is studying to be a doula, and she and her husband are converts to Judaism. Not exactly the “failure to launch” stereotype.)
First: I don’t think you could possibly have picked two less appealing names and still been on the right side of the political spectrum.
Second: That article was one of the most insulting things I’ve read in ages, and is exactly the sort of thing I was ranting about in my first post. I like a certain show and that clearly means I’m an autistic loser who is incapable of functioning in society? WHAT?
Oh. Okay then. I’m not married, so clearly I should give up this pretense of being an adult and move back in with mommy and daddy like all the other stunted manchildren.