Much has changed since the 2010’s. Especially in my region (Dutch Bible belt) and family. These are my personal views as a Dutch cosplayer from the Bible belt region, so please understand that I might say things that do not align with the views you have. 

If you’re not Dutch, know that the saying “be normal, that’s crazy enough” is a common thing in the region I come from. And cosplay is not exactly a normal hobby for a Dutch person. This page might not be advice to you, but it can be insightful for those who want to know about the beginning years of cosplay in the Netherlands from a “countryside” point of view.

Cosplay and family

The first time I wanted to cosplay, I had to have a talk with my parents. I wanted to buy a wig and I understood that my dad would have issues with that. And because I respect him and his reasons, but I wanted to cosplay a character with hair that I don’t have, I asked him to talk. His younger sister died of cancer when she was a teen of about the age when I was wanting to start cosplaying. He associated the wig with the disease and was uncomfortable with me wanting to wear a wig for fun. I understood, but I asked him if I was allowed to buy one wig to try and see if I enjoyed the hobby. If not, I would stop and never ask again. He accepted and when he picked me up from my first convention, he understood that wigs were more than for cancer patients. He actually became my greatest supporter and help with prop making. 

In 2016, there were some magazines and online forums for cosplayers and Japanese pop culture enthousiasts. We knew we were out-casts/weirdo’s to society. But as long as we had each other to teach how to make out cosplays and share our passions, we were fine. I tried to hide my hobby as much as I could at high school, because I knew I would be picked on. And I knew even more that I would be cast out by the religious people in my family and neighbourhood. When I was asked about what I was doing, I’d often reply: “Ah, just sewing a dress.” or “Making a fake theater sword.” Going to one of the four conventions in a year, was me leaving my parents’ home in normal clothes with a suitcase and heading towards the train station. In no way, I would show my cosplays to the people living nearby. Understanding that people won’t understand and not being up in their face about what I like and demanding respect for it, helped in the long term. People now know that I make costumes myself and that if they need something repaired, they can always ask me. There’s now a respect for what I do and how I do it, in a Bible belt Chiristian town in the 2020’s. 

There’s also many more events to attend and cosplay at. It feels like every weekend there is at least one. If you feel like cosplaying, make sure to take breaks. Fear of missing out sucks, but don’t let a hobby ruin other parts of your life. I have seen many newer cosplayers getting too enthousiastic and run head first into problems to attend as many events as they can. Family, school, friends, work… They are more important than cosplay. 

Cosplaying in a smaller, religious town

It is nice to see younger (than me) people expressing themselves more in my town, but sometimes I worry about them being too much of a shock to the very Christian people living in this area. The Christian people here are very conservative and not neccesarily “love your neighbour” types. While cosplay is not a sin, they will be too shocked, uncomfortable and bewildered to accept a regular cosplayer. Some might accept a Disney princess cosplayer and ask how they enjoy doing princess parties. But if you would walk around as e.g. Maomao from Apothecary Diaries, they would NOT be kind. You can adhere to the most strict clothing rules with her regular outfit (so not dressing in sin), but they would not accept it and bully you. Maomao has covered shoulders, no cleavage and a long skirt and thus fits the modest clothing rules that are set in these regions. If you are to cosplay in a Bible belt region, YOU have to prepare accordingly. Simple enough. Cosplay is the “invading” concept in the “standing” concept of religion. Be respectful to them. Like you’d have to be respectful when visiting someone in their house. 

There are perks to living here as a cosplayer. Since many traditional Christian women sew, there are a lot of sewing machine shops, fabric markets and the likes here. Bonding over a shared interest can create new friendships in environments like these. I have made some friends and given some advice to 

Cosplaying in a bigger city

In bigger cities, there’s other groups of people being a treat to cosplayers. I’ve especially noticed that when you are cosplaying with a small group in a big city, “men” will make shit remarks about how they would fix your daddy issues etc. Things that help to reduce that kind of interactions are:

• Be in a bigger group of at least 10 people.
• Have someone drag around a decent photo- or video camera.
• Avoid cosplaying outside on big sport events days. People are hella drunk and more annoying then. 

But in bigger cities, chances are that people just don’t care about you dressing weird and walking outside. As long as you aren’t acting weird (back in the day, it would be Naruto-running), many people probably don’t care. And if they care, they might just come up and ask you. Be polite, be understanding that you’re the odd one out and make sure to have some nice, entry level things to say about your hobby. Those people really don’t want to know the entire backstory and all spoilers of the character you’re cosplaying. 

I wore Asuka (pictured) in a big city once, cause she matched the aesthetics best. And did I get some negative bs. She’s not my best cosplay nor do I think that I look good in a skin-tight suit, but people couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Very annoying, but I decided to let it all slide, because some battles just couldn’t be won and safety always comes first.

Travel in cosplay

Cosplay often requires travel. Conventions, photoshoots, meet-ups… They rarely happen in a place you can go to by bicycle. (Though I have seen some funny pictures of Dutch cosplayers on bicycles! You rock!)
I have found that when traveling to a cosplay event, it is better to do so in regular clothes. Sometimes there are nice people asking genuine questions and it is a nice conversation. But often it is arrogant people demanding “what the fuck are you doing?”. They will be trying to start a conversation by being rude and those people are best ignored. Like, I had to travel in half costume with Aloy once (pictured below). The bottom of the pants have some fur and some weird people felt the need to comment weirdly on that. 

Also hide any cosplay weapons. Regular folk are not used to seeing any kind of weapon on a daily basis. Put props in a suitcase, a big shopper, a simple fabric rectangle sewn together or in the worst case: trash bags. Don’t be a reason to cause alarm. There are news articles out there about people with fake weapons being arrested due to dangerous behaviour. And some of those are cosplayers. Don’t be one of them, prevent a negative look on cosplay and travel with your props concealed.

A car is better for cosplay travel, because you can hide anything that causes alarm more easily. Throw a blanket over it while parking at McDonald’s for your after photoshoot snack and no worries anymore!

Meeting cosplayers offline

If you want to meet cosplayers, it is the easiest to do so at a convention. These events often host lectures and workshops related to cosplay. It’s the best place to meet new cosplay friends, learn skills and network! I would have loved to host a list with events here, but the speed they come and go with, is impossible for me to stay up to date with. My advice is to go to fan-hosted events and not commercial events if you want to talk crafting. How to recognise events as one or the other? Commercial events will have a company in their website footer. They are legally obligated to. Commercial events often focus on selling whatever and are more like overcrowded anime/comic markets.*  Fan-hosted events are smaller and have lectures and workshop catered to cosplayers from all levels. If you want to learn and grow, you now know what I recommend. 

And as allways: keep on crafting!
Amirine

*I’m on the spectrum and commercial events are often too loud, too bright and too hot for me to be able to enjoy them. I will admit that this is why I see them the way I do. Maybe sometime an organizer will read this and try to accomodate people like me? I sure do hope so and if you want to talk to me for advice as a fellow Event organizer (on the spectrum), e-mail me! I did a minor Event management during my Communication Bachelor. I’ll likely have some personal and professional insights that might help improve your event.