单项选择题
Walking down the hallways of conventions such as San Diego Comic-Con, fans can admire their favorite characters from video games, anime, TV shows or comic books come to life. Cosplayers, who dress up as various characters, concepts, or even inanimate objects are a huge draw to these conventions. They show off their handiwork, have their photos taken and do roleplay. What motivates these fans to do costumes, wigs and makeup varies from person to person, but one trend emerges: cosplay offers a uniquely public way to respond to published artwork and fan communities simultaneously.
For the uninitiated (外行), the term cosplay is a combination of costuming and roleplay, practice that originated in Japanese fan cultures. In the UK and US, however, the roleplay aspect has become less vital. What does seem to matter is where cosplayers gets their inspiration. Many of the cosplayers I have spoken with define it similarly to Abby, from the US: "The important thing about cosplay is that it is derived from a specific work already in publication."
Cosplay is never a purely original creative enterprise, but a reaction to an already published works. However, this does not mean that it is a brainless copy of other authors’ creations. Quite the opposite. Every well-done cosplay is an individual work of art.
While most cosplayers do not usually believe their creations directly affect published texts, they do expect reactions to their character interpretations by fellow fans. Allison, an American cosplayer from Georgia, enjoys crossplaying (dressing as a character of the opposite gender), in part because "it’s really satisfying when you play your part so well that an observer doesn’t realise you’re a crossplayer until you speak". Fans such as Allison challenge gender presentation in their fan communities, illustrating the fluidity of gender in the context of their subcultures.
Female cosplayers are often challenged by source texts that don’t offer interesting, independent, or strong female characters, or make these characters minor. One solution is to crossplay, but some are unsatisfied by this option, preferring to change the gender of the source character. For female cosplayers, this activity is often referred to as "femme-ing" a character. Women who go this route choose a male character and interpret it as female. By doing so, they directly address and correct gender inequity in their chosen works of art.
That femme-ing is so popular in fan cultures marks the fact that, as a whole, these subcultures original inspirations overwhelmingly favor hero-men over hero-women, and frequently cast womer only in the limited roles of mother, lover or trusty friend. But not all cosplay is revolutionary: it mainly offers a space in which fans can appreciate, criticise and deconstruct what they love (some times all with the same costume).
A. Various characters admired by cosplay fans.
B. The technique showing cosplay characters.
C. The cosplayers together with their dress-ups.
D. The unique wigs and makeup of cosplay fans.