Tell Feminerdity and you could be part of our Newbie Nerd Month!

We’re looking for stories either from people new to nerdery or from those who have a funny, interesting, or just plain scary story about how they got into this weird wacky world in the first place! 

Submit your story to our submittable page by 4/20/13 for consideration! :D 

(We are also currently accepting cosplay submissions for use in our costuming column and are always looking for new writers of all sorts!)

birdsflythroughus:

My girlfriend and I as Enjolras and Grantaire, sorry for the crappy picture. Movie was amazing! Wish they hadn’t cut out some E/R things, but overall it was great. Might do a video review, we’ll see.

PEOPLE ARE AWESOME AND I CAN’T AND WHAT EVEN THIS IS BEAUTIFUL AHHHHH

(this means that it’s going to be totally acceptable to cosplay Les Mis soon, right? Because I would make a FAB EPONINE OKAY? AND A FREAKING FABULOUS COURFEYRAC BECAUSE I HAVE THE SAME HAIR AS FRA FEE.)

Wot if I made a Black Canary costume…..and carried around a sign that said EMPOWERMENT! or I AM NOT AN ESCHER GIRL or something. 

idek. I just really love Dinah but her costume and the way she is drawn make her such a sex object to so many people…

An Attack on the Cosplay Community 

notbadcosplay:

Edit: This is not a discussion about how “stupid” these girls were to fall for a scam like this. It’s about it even happening. Whether or not anyone fell for this scam, it doesn’t matter. IT WAS STILL THE GOAL. In the case that a girl is sexually harassed in a real life situation, do you say, “WELL YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN DUMB”. No. So don’t do it over this. I have not seen evidence that anyone removed their clothes, but the fact that it was even asked for them to is messed up and insulting

It has come to my attention that recently there has been a scam going around, targeting female cosplayers who tend to wear sexier costumes. The user has been contacting cosplayers on different social media websites, tumblr, facebook, and deviantart included, stating they were from Cosplay.com and went as far as to use the site logo. They requested video interviews via skype, and according to people who were targeted, the user that was interviewing these cosplayers didn’t use sound or video during said interview.

Now, here’s where it becomes insulting to every single female cosplayer in the community.

At the end of the interview, the cosplayers were given a quiz on their character. If you got a question wrong, you had to take off an article of clothing.

I’m furious. This is another targeted attack on the female cosplay community, where people don’t believe attractive female cosplayers know anything about their characters

They attempted to make female cosplayer look stupid and like attention whores. I am absolutely insulted for every single female in the community who has had to deal with this!

The fact that so many cosplayers who were legitimately excited about giving an interview while dressed as a character they love, in a costume they hand crafted were fooled by someone who just wanted to try to make us look bad? No. This is not okay. Female cosplayers are targeted enough as “sluts”, “whores”, “not true nerds”, and have repeatedly been sexually harassed by men in the community who think they’re better nerds

The scammer had their deviantart removed, so I cannot track them down, but I know more than one cosplayer who was scammed and is absolutely mortified.

NOT BAD COSPLAY WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. THE COMMUNITY WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. If anyone every makes you feel uncomfortable during an interview, you leave that interview. You should never be told to take anything off. You should never be made to feel like you’re being sexualized, harassed, stalked, scammed, or anything else.

Here is the thread to report incidences, screen caps, etc about experiencing this event to coscom: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=309404

If anyone would like to come to me with their account of what happened, either anonymous or not, you can email me at NotBadCosplay@gmail.com

If any videos of this end up showing up on the internet, I can promise NotBadCosplay and its followers will team together to make sure they are brought down. This sort of attack on the community is not acceptable. We are people. We love the characters we dress as. We love making and wearing costumes. We don’t to it to be oggled, sexualized, harassed, or bullied. PERIOD.

(via quinngrey)

quinngrey:

Jack Frost Cosplay.

NO BUT I ACTUALLY CAN’T WITH HOW CUTE YOU ARE.

There is now a tab in our sidebar for ~donating~! 

bostonwhovians:

Yes, we have a WePay account now….because they’re COOL.

Also, fundraising, even in very small amounts, is going to help us become an even more amazing group in the future! 

This money WILL NOT be going in anyone’s pocket. It’s going to be directly benefiting YOU the members of the Boston Whovians.

To give you some idea of what we’ll be able to do once we have some club funds:

• have cooler prizes for costumes contests and games and such
• actually buy food/snacks/refreshments for meetups
• buy nicer business cards
• buy a nicely printed sign/banner
• have group funds to contribute to things like tips and bills when we go out together
• help Whovians on tight budgets pay for transportation to meetups
• contribute to group-rate convention passes 
• rent a table at cons so we can sell things we make and generally show off how awesome we are
• save money to rent out places for BIG events (like the 50th)…which is a step towards having a CON of our own someday in the distant future!

WePay is also going to be the perfect way to collect payments for things like tshirts and bracelets, which people have talked about having made in the past.

ALSO, sometime before the Christmas Party, I will be accepting payments for raffle tickets so, even if you aren’t able to attend the event, you’ll be able to be in the running for some of the cool prizes we’ll have up for grabs! :D

I’m so, so excited about the future of this group! I love all of you and can’t wait to see where the next year takes us!

~Tori, the TARDIS

mizuaoi:

hinoneko:

we all start somewhere

I really wish the cosplay community would calm the fuck down and realize this. 

(via doctorbofurbooty)

_{Tobie as Moriarty
Zhelly as Moran
Photo by Katie}

(via suchbluesky)

So, um, my last name begins with a Q….and I suddenly remembered….that we have like 948679846 of these in our cabinet left over from when my parents got married.

Is this like a sign that I have to cosplay Q or something?

SHIT GUYS THIS IS GETTING SERIOUS.

eschergirls:

thebirdandthebat:

Wow, I’m never buying anything Tony Harris does again. Disgusting.

(Ex Machina, Starman artist: his wikipedia page. Click the image to be taken to the Facebook thread where he posted this.)

Since somebody sent this to me, because it fits some of the themes this blog has touched on in the past, here are my thoughts:

1) I like how he thinks he’s stumbled upon our secret plan, and also that this is some sort of amazing new idea.  I’ve heard this accusation from my geek guy friends going back a decade.  The “you’re just there to get attention because you want to be the big fish in a small pond” accusation to femalef geeks they find attractive, is not new.

2) I like how he’s a mind reader.  Maybe it’s true of some girls, maybe it’s not, how do you know by looking at them?  The only thing you know is how YOU’RE attracted to us, and therefore it must be our plan.

3) Yay body shaming!  Your boobs are ugly!  I bet you’re just here because you think you’re thin!

4) Insulting “real” geek girls by implying that he thinks they’re ugly and fat.

5) This still doesn’t make sense.  So any woman he thinks is semi-attractive, but not model hot, is a fake geek girl SIMPLY because there’s no other reason she’d be there?  He can tell just because she falls into some definition of attractiveness for him that’s in the middle?

6) Maybe they’re in skimpy costumes because a lot of heroines in video games and comics are in skimpy costumes?  Even the ones who aren’t are in skin tight costumes.  If they were in non-accurate costumes, they’d probably be accused of being not real geeks because the costumes weren’t accurate.

7) More mind reading.  IT PISSES ME OFF THAT I AM SO SURE THAT THIS TERRIBLE THING IS THE THOUGHT PROCESS GOING THROUGH THEIR MIND AND THAT THEY SECRETLY WANT TO JUST FEEL LIKE A CHEERLEADER AROUND A BUNCH OF MALE GEEKS WHO HAVE NEVER TALKED TO A WOMAN BEFORE.  I KNOW IT.  Again, even if this were true of some people (women, *gasp* are not a homogenous group), he seems to “know” this only because he thinks the woman is semi-attractive to him.  And also, you can’t disprove his theory, since he’s already said if we talk to guys at cons, we’re just lying liars who lie, and would never do it outside, so that’s not even proof we’re just there to have fun.  I guess the only proof is he’d have to follow us home and make sure we’re sleeping with a guy he considers geeky enough to count to our cred?

8) Male geeks are apparently all the same, and they are completely pathetic lonely guys who need protection from evil geek girls who wear costumes.  Do male geeks actually like white knights like this guy “standing up” for them? -_-

9) Who cares even if people are in cons just to get attention?  People go to baseball games just to get attention and get on TV.  Are cons some sort of “pure” place now where people’s money to attend is only accepted if the purity of our soul is weighed against a roc feather to see if we’re true geeks?

10) Why does it matter how “geeky” one is anyway?  I thought these things were supposed to be fun.  Miss Martian is my favourite character and I cosplay her, but I have never seen the TV show.  I’ve read a few of the comics when she debuted.  Should I turn in my geek card?  I’ve been accused of being a “fake geek” SIMPLY for being Asian, because “Asian girls know white men want them”.  Should I strip off my skin now?

11) What’s wrong with wanting to feel attractive anyway?  Is he saying some women aren’t ALLOWED to feel attractive?  Only women who look like models are allowed?  This reminds me of a guy I knew in high school who literally said that any woman with stomach pudge shouldn’t be allowed to wear tight clothes.  Like government banned, because he felt that “fat” girls shouldn’t be allowed to feel sexy.

12) Yes people dress up to get attention, because dressing up is fun and having people see your awesome costume is fun.  People also do this on Halloween.  The funny part is that he’s upset that women are putting in all the effort to create and sew these elaborate costumes that look really accurate, and he’s claiming they don’t really care.

Nitpicking aside, I think the big issue here is how guys like Harris seem to think women exist entirely for men, and our entire world and thought process is all about them.  If I walk into a comic book store wearing clothes that they think make me attractive, I must be there to seduce them.  My hair must be done to attract them.  My glasses are probably a front to make me more of a sexy geek girl.  I’m Asian so I must be thinking “I’m a sexy exotic Asian girl lalalalala look at me boys!” constantly, and I can’t just be thinking “I wonder if they have All Hail Megatron in yet?”  If THEY like me, then everything I do has to be meant for them, and my thought process is all tailored to them. Because THEY want me, and THEY don’t feel they can “have” me, this is my fault.  I’m a temptress, I’m a Jezebel.

It’s very similar to other attitudes in which society views certain groups of people and their bodies.  Fat people are accused of flaunting their fatness to disgust others.  Gay couples are accused of “shoving” their sexuality in people’s faces simply for holding hands.  Trans people are accused of trying to “trap” cis people who are attracted to them.  (We can add this to the above scenario, where if a guy in a comic shop is attracted to me and finds out I’m trans, it’s my fault if he freaks out.)  How OTHER people react to our bodies is not something they are told to take responsibility for, instead we get told it’s OUR fault.  If a man assaults a woman, it’s her fault for what she wears.  If a guy at a con is bitter that he’s attracted to a girl who he’s afraid to talk to, it’s HER fault.  She MUST have known this, and MUST be trying to make him miserable.  If she talks to him she’s leading him on, if she ignores him, she’s being cruel to him.

This idea that people should only go to conventions for the “right reasons” is silly.  Should people only go to shopping malls for the “right reasons” too?  If you don’t want to buy things, but you just want to walk around and look cute, you should be banned?

Ultimately, I think this is really insulting to everybody.  Geek girls are all fakers who just want to be the sexy fish in the small pond, and we have active evil thoughts in our brain, and geek guys are all agency-less children who can’t have an attractive woman near them without having a brain aneurysm, and need Harris to protect them.  How about, people go to cons to have fun.  Some people go to get attention (including the guys), and good for them.  What’s wrong with that?  It’s a place where people can feel free to dress up in ways they normally could not.  Who cares their motivation?  If them being attractive to you bothers you, then stop looking at them.  Go do something else.  Talk to somebody else.  Go have fun, and let us have fun. :)

Edit: I think one of the other problems with this is the idea that being a geek is like a consolation prize.  It’s like Harris, and others who think like him believe that being a geek is something you are because you’re not good at sports, you’re not attractive, you’re not a good dancer, etc… rather than something you are because of your interests.  You can see this in his attitude that all male geeks must have never had a girlfriend or social interaction with women, and that female geeks who are thin or have big breasts must not be there for the interests, and wouldn’t want to talk to these men outside the cons.  The implication seems to be that she could (and should) be out clubbing, or dancing, or shopping, because she’s attractive, and therefore would never truly want to read comics, play video games, or watch Star Wars.

Edit 2: The Revenge:

Oh good, he’s a transphobe too.

W O W.

hahhahahha ha ha ha

I’m never buying a fucking thing this son of a bitch does ever again.

Let’s make our own LEGION comic book ladies!

LET’S BOYCOTT TONY HARRIS.

(via recallthenameold)