Fantastical body narratives : cosplay, performance, and gender diversity.

Author

Tiffany M. Hutabarat-Nelson, University of LouisvilleFollow

Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2017

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Humanities

Degree Program

Humanities, PhD

Committee Chair

Hall, Ann

Committee Member

Gagne, Patricia

Committee Member

Story, Kaila

Committee Member

Roof, Judith

Author's Keywords

cosplay; performance; gender diversity; gender studies; cultural studies

Abstract

This dissertation aims to explore how the phenomenon of cosplay has been able to produce and sustain a diversity of gender expression due to its emergence from an activity-based community that emphasizes creative play. This creative energy is manifested through cosplay as an active, ritualized practice in which gender diversity is invited to be realized as a distinct possibility, resulting in a display of a full range of masculinities and femininities as well as crossplays and genderbend cosplays. I argue that cosplay can therefore be understood as a phenomenon that destabilizes the gender binary—its active practice promotes the production and interpretation of gender as being within a spectrum for cosplayers and their audiences alike. I also assert that the degree of diversity of gender expression observed through cosplay at fandom conventions is better accounted for as social change achieved through ritualized practice rather than as a subversive performance. This dissertation hopes to demonstrate that the sustainment of diversity of gender expression hinges upon the interdependent relationship between a ritualized, repeated practice and the individuals, community and space that promote it.

Recommended Citation

Hutabarat-Nelson, Tiffany M., "Fantastical body narratives : cosplay, performance, and gender diversity." (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2669.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2669