Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and buy something, I might receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions will help me fulfill my cosplay dream of getting the Wanderer costume – it’s been on my wishlist for a year! Every little bit helps, and your support is greatly appreciated!
While Cosplay is inherently safe hobby, it may have some hazards to some individuals if this hobby is abused or misused. Everything that’s excessive is bad.
I don’t know what is your opinion after you see this blog’s title, but in my opinion, cosplay has some health risks. Cosplay is a harmless hobby and it might improve your mental health compared to another risky hobby like skydiving. Maybe, the worst risk of cosplay is that some cosplay props have a choking hazard but it’s way too unlikely to happen.
This is a case to case basis, there is some instances that cosplaying might be dangerous for your economic, physical and mental health. These kind of hazards whether it’s minor or major, it make you uncomfortable to do cosplay anymore.
In this blog, I will give you 6 reasons for the dangers that a cosplay hobby has. Everything in the world has a risk even an innocent harmless form of art expression, cosplay is included there.
These 5 reasons are divided by two. It’s economic, and mental hazards. Whether it’s a small issue or not, cosplayers must be aware of these things.
Economical Hazards
Scam
This issue often happens in Facebook Marketplace and in the sector of cosplay costume rental. Not only in Facebook but this scam also happens in large online Marketplace like Shopee.
This type of hazard is the reason why most of cosplayers are making their own costume. They don’t want to mitigate the risk of getting scammed online for buying a cosplay costume because we know that the internet is full of financial predators, especially the cosplay community market.
Many cosplayers order a cosplay costume online and they will find out that the size of their costume does not fit what they instructed the merchant. Sometimes, the costume or props will arrive broken. This issue always happens when buying second-hand cosplay because some sellers are not transparent or honest about the issue of the cosplay material.
In costume rental, some online users will rent cosplay costume online and not returning the costume to the owner or landlord. Sometimes the owner will be the scammer, they will not give back the security deposit of the tenant after returning the costume. Yep, it sounds like a real estate scam!
The worst scam ever that a cosplayer can experience is that they will pay for the costume through online payment. After a while, the merchant will not reply and never deliver the costume. The merchant just got some free money!
These scenarios are sucks, they are very painful to experience. These scams can have a lifelong trauma on your cosplay experience. That’s why you should buy your next cosplay in reputable cosplay websites like Role Cosplay to never ever experience those depressing catastrophic events.
Addiction
You can be addicted to everything whether it’s a substance or non-substance. Cosplay is a form of art and sometimes your art attack will turn into a debt collector attack. The feeling that your all fulfilled cosplays are now shared with your bank’s third-party collection agency!
Cosplay can be bad for your finances too especially for cosplayers that have an addiction to debt. Many cosplayers fall into this trap, they spend too much money on this hobby rather than buying their basic needs and paying their outstanding credit card bill.
Many cosplayers are way too obsessed with their cosplay lists without analyzing their financial status. This wrong financial priority will turn their cosplay plan list into a mind-blowing credit card bill. The most extreme case here is that your debt collector will be your next cosplay friend!
I understand that you are passionate about cosplay but sometimes the word passion can be a cloak to a word passion. Passion to cosplay makes you love the hobby without sacrificing your wellbeing but addiction is that you are willing to sacrifice anything in your life including your financial status.
Mental Hazards
Body Dysmorphia
In my own personal experience, I experience body dysmorphia as a cosplayer. Seeing a photoshopped unrealistic cosplay body is one of my triggers. One more thing is that sometimes as a medium-sized cosplayer, it’s a torture to me to see fit small weight cosplayers in social media.
Many media to plus-sized cosplayers are DMing me on my Facebook account telling me that they want to quit cosplay because they are “too fat” or “too chubby” to cosplay. I just say to them as a cosplayer that goes through the dysmorphia road that there is no such thing as “too X” for you to cosplay.
Not just for weight but there is some cosplayers are ranting in their Facebook Messenger notes that they wish they were “tall enough” to cosplay.
Because of influence of body standard made by these social media communities that spent all of their money for Photoshop license, many cosplayers has a distorted body image.
Harassment
There’s no such thing as a perfect community. The cosplay community also has incidents of harassment that can affect your cosplay experience. Whether you are cosplaying online or inside of the convention, there is a risk of harassment.
The common harassment in the cosplay community are body shamming, sexual harassment, touching of costumes or wigs without consent, unsolicited public display of affection (PDA) etc.
Convention Creepers
Convention creepers are the con-goers that has a one main goal, to do weird and creepy shit inside of the convention instead of having fun. Convention creepers are commonly fantasizing about cosplayers and doing sexual stuff inside of the convention.
Encountering this kind of creep is psychologically and emotionally challenging among cosplayers. Nowadays, both male and female cosplayers are the ones that getting struck by those insane con-goers. Regardless of your age, size, and gender, you have a risk of encountering one.
Aira Fujiyuki is a Wanderer cosplayer, artist, SEO Specialist and a fiction writer in the Philippines. He is way too enthusiast about the world of cosplay.
He is currently working as a full time blogger in the niche of artistry and creativity.