…And they are, “none of your concern”. Bear with me why I “click bait” you into this article.
I find it very strange when people go onto social media both private and public either mentioning or subtweeting their grievance against another person. And when I mean grievance, i kinda mean petty things or small matters, things the court of law wouldn’t consider getting involved in.
There has been a few times during my time in the cosplay community where someone has said, “oh be careful of that person”, “that person is creepy”, “this person as wronged another person” etc. As a human being, of course I would react and become defensive around that person but then later on I would question what I have heard. There are times I would think, “Is what I heard is true?” or where did they hear it from. I am at times disappointed to hear the only reason they won’t acknowledge another person is because they were told to. I feel like people still need to make up their mind about a person and make an informed decision about that person.
It seems it’s easily to spread hate or lies about someone then actually finding out the truth. Where you can, do try and listen/find out, both sides of the story. You don’t have to pick sides, we are all adults here. If your friends forces you to decides who should be friends, then I suggest you walk away from that person cause no friend should be dominating who your friends are or what you should do.
When people start making a campaign about “hating” on that person or try to drive them out, what they are doing is essentially bullying out of the cosplay community. We are better than that. If someone has wronged you, doesn’t mean they will wrong everyone they meet. Of course you can warned them but it still up to them to make the informed decisioned.
I have a few people whom I have dissociate with but I have purposely not gone up to other photographers or cosplayers saying, “this person doesn’t credit”, “they edit photos without permission”, “they were highly unreliable”, etc. Those are actions which only happened to me and I don’t feel like I need to drag others into my grief or drag their name through the mud.
A quick addendum for something that was brought up privately with me after I wrote this article. The stuff I talked about above obviously doesn’t include anyone accused of sexual harassment or any form of exploitation of cosplayers. Me, and the rest of the food and cosplay team, think that it’s important that cosplayers safety is put first and informing people of cosplayers and photographers who have sexually harassed, raped or mentally abused their partners and those they worked with are very important. What I was talking about above is more to do with the gossip, hearsay and drama that arises when cosplayers fallout with each other.
Do you think what I have said make sense, Am I wrong, let me know.