A discrepancy in Cosplay culture, and Gothic, Lolita culture
“Um.. I think I’m not cosplayer because Lolita is not count as cosplay but I don’t know why it wasn’t counted.” Mina responded to me when I asked her feeling about cosplay. Beside some people imitated ACG character, others were also dressed laced Lolita dresses in the convention center. At first, I was confused like Mina that Lolita is a part of cosplay culture or not. I thought that Lolita and cosplay were the same thing. After I read Isaac’s article, “Urban Princesses: Performance and "Women's Language" in Japan's Gothic/Lolita Subculture”, I realized that there were differences between Lolita and Cosplay culture. Cosplay was a group of people who created costumes to imitate their favor characters. However, Lolita was a doll-like culture. It was a group of female who like to dress like cute loyal members such as princess and acted like a lady. Cosplay could relate to dangerous topics such as drugs, violent, and swear language. There was no prohibition in cosplay culture. In Lolita culture, people must speak politely, didn’t speak swear words and treated people nicely.Therefore, cosplay is different with Lolita; cosplay is a free-mind activity. That is the reason why it is enchanted me to participate in cosplay culture.
