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What I don't understand is how it's acceptable for a middle-aged fat guy to strip to the waist, paint himself with team colors, get piss-pants drunk and bellow incoherent nonsense about a football team on national television but somehow cosplay is beyond the pale.
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@corpore-metal: Good point. Though to be fair, I'll be a lot of sports fans cringe when they see the sports "cosplay" too.
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@Annalee Newitz: Damn, once you phrase it that way, it is quite silly, isn't it? Sports Cosplay. *shiver*
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@corpore-metal: i love when the "jocks" at work spend 20 - 30 mins talking about fantasy baseball, football & hockey and then give me funny looks when i talk about D&D
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@evildead1971: While I'm no jock, I talk about football in terms of miniatures wargaming. What I love about football is the complex and arcane rules and the very strict class distinctions.
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@evildead1971: My friend's roommate in college actually burst into tears when his fantasy football team lost. Same guy who called us losers for playing a little Halo every once in a while. He was calling up friends to commiserate.
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@corpore-metal: You know how to get away from that? Pick kickboxing as your second hobby. Then they'll be confused by your dual nature. In that confusion there will be a moment where you'll be able to kick them firmly in the nuts.
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@corpore-metal: seriously. Costuming is a silly hobby, but most people make their own costumes and/or props, so there's an element of craft and sewing and wig design, and above all they just have fun. I know a few people who do costuming (both cosplay and historical and original steampunk or fushion fasions) and they're normal people with what society has deemed an irretrievably dorky hobby. It's not sexual, nor is there really even any sizable overlap between them and LARPers, so "escapism" is often very secondary to creativity, homage, and positive attention.
For me, personally, making those sorts of outfits is just a lot more fun than making street wear. I don't cosplay, but I've made stuff for others in the past. Now I only get to sew casual clothing for myself and it's not as enjoyable, even if I get something practical out of the deal. There's not nearly the same degree of challenge or weirdness to the exercise.
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@corpore-metal: As a jock and a nerd, it's surprisingly easier to pick up women with, uh... "Sports cosplay" than actual cosplay. That's how I measure their social acceptance. Sad, but true, and I'm doing my best to change perceptions.
That said, what's with all the nerd vs. jock stuff? A lot of us jocks are multi-classed nerds.
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@Annalee Newitz: Every member of every subculture has done something cringeworthy once in their life.
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@Paul_Is_Drunk:
Paul asks, "That said, what's with all the nerd vs. jock stuff?"
I will admit this is a prejudice and perhaps unjustified but it is one based on my personal experience.
I'm an old, old-school nerd that formed in the 1970s just at the cusp of the personal computer revolution. The nerds I hung with in high school and junior high where actually pretty physically fit and exercised in a wide number of ways.
They, and I, just hated the regimentation and false nationalism that school team sports tried to drill into us as students. Physical education classes, at that time, seemed to be almost intentionally designed to discourage interest in physical fitness if you had a certain mindset. If you fucked up and dropped the ball a few times in soccer or softball, the rest of the team really made you feel like scum of the earth.
It wasn't that these friends of mine really that slow, weak or uncoordinated. Two of friends of mine were excellent fencers. One lifted weights. All of my friends were cyclists. It's just that they hated the mindless drill sargentry, pointless competition and the herd mentality of team sports. The impression given to us was that team sports wasn't for people who actually liked to think or show any personal initiative or creativity. That might be false but that was the impression that we received from the PE classes we took.
Is it so surprising that so many nerds get turned off from team sports so early on in their life?
Here's another observation I've noticed in my life so far. I, as a nerd, walk and cycle big distances daily. At 45 I'm a pretty fit guy. I don't get winded when I climb 8 or 10 flights of stairs. Some people I've known from high school who were jocks are now nursing middle aged spread and get winded after only 2 flights of stairs. They have joint and back problems that somehow, by pacing myself I guess, I've managed to avoid.
I got to ask myself: Is team sports really healthy for people?
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@Pope John Peeps II: I think there needs to be some clarification for everyone here:
I'm not interested in cosplay or LARP'ing myself. The first hobby is too expensive and the second just makes me uncomfortable despite the fact I'm an enormous ham when playing characters in table-top RPGs.
However having said that, I'm just doing my duty as member of the tribe by defending my fellow nerds as they fly their freak flags high!
I actually took a couple years of judo when I was grade school--my mom's idea--but it was too expensive and I felt it required far more practice than I was willing to do to acquire a skill.
Instead what I got good at, as my school career rolled along, was to learn how to spot and avoid situations bullies set up to grind down the weaklings.
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@evildead1971: Good point. I've often wondered at this myself. I had a friend who was into that and I said to him, "Sounds like D&D." He said, "Yeah, I guess it is like that, sort of."
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@Paul_Is_Drunk: It depends on how you mean "with." Sports is more socially acceptable, so it's less likely to be a dealbreaker if suddenly and inadvertently revealed.
On the other hand, with the thing itself, I think sports and cosplay are pretty equal for picking up women. The technique required is much different between the two, but I'd give even odds either way.
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@corpore-metal:
"I got to ask myself: Is team sports really healthy for people?"
"I got to ask myself: Is team sports really healthy for people?"
Well, of course not. I don't think too many people would argue otherwise - leads to lots of injuries and degenerative damage problems, while to some extent promoting cardiovascular fitness. At best, a tradeoff; at worst, well look at a lot of ex-NFL people.
-Kle.