lazypadawan | Unpopular Opinion Alert On Girls, Cons, And Those Skimpy Costumes

There was a panel at Comic Con called "Oh You Sexy Geek" about whether or not beauty and prancing about in risqué costumes is empowering for a fangirl or not. I avoided this because I didn't think I could sit in a room with known Star Wars basher Chris Gore.

Anyway, chicks in skimpy costumes at conventions are nothing new. It was one of the best-kept secrets among fanboys until the media picked up on it too (which will get to my point). I read in "The Making Of The Trek Conventions" about the tricky outfits they modeled from the show and the fan-made (and award-winning) costume worn by someone named Angelique that resembled what you'd see in a Brazilian carnival, not so much on Trek. As it turned out, Angelique was the first woman ever to wear a Vampirella costume to a con and that had to have been in the late '60s. Every Comic Con I've attended has had the Booth Babes (the ones at Gentle Giant looked like Hookers For Thor), along with various Playboy playmates and pinups like the Suicide Girls signing autographs for their fans. I didn't see the chick "dressed" like some naked Japanese character but I did hear about Adrienne Curry getting kicked out because her Aeon Flux costume exposed too much of her rear end. Girls with either the figures or the extreme confidence in spite of their figures to pull those off (I'm not one of them) do it because they get attention. It's not really any more mysterious than that.

Which brings me to my unpopular opinion. There was something that happened at this Comic Con that bothered me (not mentioned in my report). As I passed one of the booths, this guy was announcing that he was giving stuff away to anyone with a picture posing with a "hot chick." You see, any girl who's young, attractive, and yes, in a skimpy costume will get photographed A LOT. If you're posing with a woman who may be attractive but just dressed regularly she probably won't be considered hot enough to win a prize.

And I've noticed in a lot of the internet coverage of the con, there are entire galleries dedicated to these girls in of course skimpy outfits. Nobody over drinking age and nobody in regular clothes or cosplay that doesn't do a lot of display.

So while one can academically argue that these fangirls "own" their sexuality and that's empowering, I'm arguing that the downside is that these "hot chicks" are to the media, to male fans, and even to those organizing the cons just pieces of @$$, which isn't so empowering. There's been lurking misogyny in the con scene for years, such as the infamous JournalFen account of a creepy sicko who wanted women attending conventions to wear buttons saying "Yes" or "No" indicating whether or not they were open to letting a guy feel them up. (I would wear the Touch Me And You'll Sing Soprano button).

Now I'm not saying, "Cover up." But if you own yourself, you encourage respect, and you have to be smart enough to know where to draw the line. Female fans need to insist on not being treated as objects or as reasons for some guy to win a prize.

Unpopular Opinion Alert On Girls, Cons, And Those Skimpy Costumes

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