This is the new poster for Comikaze Expo that the unveiled on their facebook page on Friday.
A close friend of mine, who happens to be an avid cosplayer and con-goer, saw it and posted it on her facebook page, asking for her friends opinions about it.
I thought about it, and it makes me uncomfortable.
I grew up geeky (and I'm aware that fact doesn't make me unique, which I'll get to in a minute.) I'm an only child, and I was raised to be pretty individualistic, and I never felt like hiding my outside-the-mainstream interests was an option. This often made me a target for social stigmatization, mostly in high school, until I went off to college and met lots of other nerdy people who like the same things that I like.
I'm not going to say that this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore, because obviously it does. Like most social causes worth caring about, things aren't perfect, but they're getting better. It's been an important few years for nerd culture as a whole. The Avengers is officially the third highest grossing movie of all time. There's a new superhero movie for every season, and at least two or three new sci-fi movies every summer. Star Trek is popular with non-nerds again. Anime and Manga are available wherever DVDs and digital/printed entertainment media are sold. The graphic novel section at my local big chain bookstore has never been larger in the ten plus years that I've lived here. Video games garner enough attention and sales to warrant promotional billboards over Times Square. Venture Brothers exists.
Nerd culture is as ubiquitous and mainstream as it's ever been. People who don't self-identify that way might not be signing up for Yuletide or making podcasts about their comic book collections, but they're definitely showing up to patronize the new Star Trek movie, buying Adventure Time merchandise at Hot Topic, and going, in droves, to Comic Con.
The tone of that poster bothers me: LIVE NERDS! GEEKS GEEKS GEEKS!
As though comic con attendees are some sort of spectacle. Why is it still okay to point at people with nerdy interests as if they're freaks? Why are we, as nerds and geeks and whatever you want to call us, people who like to go to comic book conventions, comfortable with comic conventions marketing to us that way?
My friend who asked for comments on the original post also brought up an incredibly good separate point (for which she was LOUDLY shouted down in the comments on that above facebook post.)
The cosplay community is causing an uproar (as well they should) because too many convention goers are treating cosplayers the same way that many patrons (usually male) at a strip club treat (usually female) strippers. Which is to say: in an objectified manner that does not respect their autonomy as people. I would elaborate, but you probably already know what I'm talking about. The COSPLAY DOES NOT EQUAL CONSENT movement is trying to change that, and I fully applaud and support their efforts*.
The strip-club-inspired design of that poster is pretty difficult to separate from the message of the poster itself. If I were responsible for explaining that poster to a six year old, I wouldn't be able to in a way that is age appropriate. Comikaze is supposed to be a family friendly convention. There are lots of conventions that aren't, of course, but in general, most large conventions encourage parents to bring their kids. Shouldn't we be encouraging the fostering of a new nerdy generation? Is there anything more magical than the look on a kid's face the first time they see adults in really excellent cosplay?
I'm glad that Comikaze Expo understands the value of good graphic design when it comes to promoting their event. As someone who works in the print/graphics industry, I have to say,the execution of this design is exceptional. The colors are pretty, it's eye catching, and it successfully evokes the thing it's referencing while simultaneously promoting the present-day event that it's meant to be advertising.
I just wish the concept weren't in such bad taste.
* I hopefully don't need to explain to you that our society as a whole doesn't treat strippers with respect (and, in many ways, legally punishes sex workers by not affording them the same rights that we do for other professions.) In case you somehow didn't know this, here's some reading. Trigger warning for sexual abuse.
