LDS Cosplayers and Modesty: The Constant Struggle

Hey everyone! I know, it's been a month, but believe me when I say that I've been overwhelmed with school. Between readings, assignments, presentations, and final projects, I haven't had much down time. But this post is actually related to my folklore project, so if I could get some feedback on this topic, that would be great!

Me dressed as a ninja turtle with a girl dressed as Zelda

So this post is about cosplaying and the struggle that many LDS cosplayers have with modest costuming. I'm sure most of you know about cosplaying, but to give a quick definition: cosplaying is the act of dressing up as a character from a known TV show, movie, book, video game, etc. It has a lot to do with popular geek culture. Most people cosplay at comic and anime conventions, so it happens in a specific place.

My folklore class has been focusing on how things are folkloric. Really, the basic idea of folklore is the everyday culture of people, whether it's family traditions or the weird things you and your coworkers do at the office. Folklore focuses on many different things, but I looked at two elements of folklore in cosplay: community and identity. Cosplaying creates a community because it's a type of performance where people from different locations will gather in one place to show off their creativity and love for a fandom to others. It also creates a community online. There are lots of blogs, youtube videos and posts on tips for cosplaying from buying cosplay to making certain elements of a costume. Cosplayers all band together to show their knowledge and help others create their costumes.


The folklore element I really focused on in my project was identity in cosplay. In folklore, the sense of identity is huge and it's this desire to define one's identity that fuels a lot of folklore. And cosplaying has a lot to do with identity, since you have to balance your own identity with the identity of your character. If too much of your identity shows, the cosplay isn't effective and other people may not be engaged; if too much of your character's identity shows, you could be disconnected with your identity, or you could come across as too intense.

My Friend Andrea. She made the Yoshi mask herself.

Now we talked about how cosplayers are a cultural group, but within this group is another sub-culture: LDS cosplayers (cosplayers who are members of the LDS church). These cosplayers have another layer of identity to reconcile with the character's identity, which is the standard of modesty. In this case, LDS cosplayers often give up some element of either their LDS identity to keep the costume accurate, or some their character's identity to stay modest.

I wanted to see how different LDS cosplayers reacted to this issue of modesty. I interviewed several friends of mine who cosplayed and were practicing members of the LDS church. I asked them about what influences their choice in cosplay, how much modesty affects their choices in cosplay, and whether or not they modify costumes. In their responses, I found three main types of LDS cosplayers. One group was super strict with their modesty and often modified costumes or were picky with their cosplay, depending on how modest the costume was. The second group was more relaxed in modesty standards in both cosplay and in every day dress, but they still drew the line at the more revealing costumes. The third group was strict in everyday wear, but was more relaxed with cosplay, seeing it as an exception to the modesty rule.

Finally, I also noticed that among my friends, it was the girls that had the most problems with modesty and thought about it the most when cosplaying. The boys didn't think about modesty as much, if at all. This makes sense because, let's face it, the majority of female characters are dressed in pretty revealing clothing, while male character costumes are more conservative. One way many girls combat the issue is dressing as female versions of male characters, or even cross-dressing. I know I've dressed as male characters because it worked with my shorter hair and the costume was easier to put together. It did make it easier to be modest too. Cross-dressing in cosplay is becoming more popular for girls who don't want to wear super-revealing costumes. This brings up interesting things of identity and how fluid it can be when you're cosplaying; you could become not only a different person, but even a different gender.

So there you have it. My findings on LDS cosplay, modesty, identity and folklore. Let me know what you guys think! Until later, folks!