Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Myth of Perfection

I know I'm posting this a little late, but by now I'm sure you've heard of the Myth of Perfection post by Lauren of Wearing History wrote a couple of weeks ago. She challenged us to post the not so glamourous truth behind some of our photos. Here are some of mine.


The stomacher on this gown turned out to be too narrow. I had to sew it onto a scrap of black fabric and then get stitched into the dress by a friend.

 
I hated how this dress turned out. The friends I usually go to the Ren Faire with were doing a black and gold theme and asked me to join in a couple of days before the Faire, so I whipped this up. I had to dye the fabric black (it's originally green), and I never got it to the deep rich black that I wanted. During the faire I got horribly sunburned and dehydrated, and spent the day in utter misery.

 
The bodice of this dress is a good two sizes too small. I had gained about 10 pounds before the event, most of it up top, it seems, and I had to sew myself into it the night of the Ball. On the way there, I was stressed, I got lost in the French Quarter, and was starting to feel sick. During the Ball, it was clear I was starting to run a fever, and by the time we got back to the hotel, I was shivering all over, burning and freezing, and I couldn't focus my vision. It passed within a couple of hours, but most of the evening I was totally miserable.

I was really, really proud of this outfit, and I felt amazing while I was wearing it. A friend and I won Best in Show in the cosplay contest at the convention we were at. After the con, I got online and found people attacking my friend and I. We were called fat, ugly, and were told we looked like cross-dressing men. People were sending me messages accusing me of buying the costume and violating the contest rules, and calling me all sorts of nasty things. I had just lost a ton of weight before the convention, too, (over 40 pounds) so being called fat (the default insult of online trolls), really affected my self-esteem, and I shut myself in my house for days not wanting to venture out. The entire event made me abandon the anime community altogether, and I haven't been to another anime convention since.

These were really the big ones. Most of the time, I'm having a great time at an event, but every once in a while, things go sideways. Sometimes they go really sideways, and other times they tip over completely. 
 
Please be kind to your fellow costumers, there really is no reason to be nasty to those that share your love of the hobby. The people behind the screen names and blog pages are still real people, and what you say has a real impact on them.

1 comment:

  1. You look so beautiful in your anime costume, not fat at all. Those 13 year old boys just have to find something to do to make themselves feel better.

    ReplyDelete

Flickr