Hey chums. I wondering if you could all just give me a hand with something. I’m trying to remember what grade I learned about communism in. I want to say that it was grade eight. It was definitely the same period of time where my Social Studies and English teachers were the same person, because we read Animal Farm at the same time we were learning all about Russian history and junk. But that also could have been grade seven.

Fuck.

Um… anyway, I’ve been thinking a little about cosplay and how I think the idea behind it is comparable to the idea of communism. Which sounds weird, but go with me for a second. From what I remember from my studies, the basic idea behind communism was great. Create a society in which everyone is truly equal. Everyone gets treated the same, everyone shares a bit of the wealth, and the world becomes a better place. Nice, right? But see, it all falls apart when you mix in basic human nature. See, we’re all sort of fucked up. We all desire more, and in many cases, we specifically desire more than that guy, because that way, he’ll know just how much better you are than he is. And so it all fell apart, not because the idea was flawed, but because people are generally horrible.

Now. Cosplay. I love the idea behind cosplay, but in practice, I really don’t think it has the desired effect. It’s intent, I believe, is to show just how awesome you think something is. A person has to put a lot of courage into going out dressed up as a character from something or other, even if they are in a sea of like-minded people, and that clearly shows a love. But in practice, this love is often turned into seriousness. More often than not, cosplayers tend to be very serious and defensive about certain things, about certain plot points. They feel like they are owed something for their level of fandom, which is just not true. Cosplay should absolutely, positively be about fun and expression first, and should not be currency, to be traded in for entitlement.

That said, I would like to show you something, sent to us by our Twitter pal @puckett101. It’s a video showcasing cosplayers, set to that one P!nk song that was on Glee that one time. And it’s awesome. It shows creativity, and it shows love, and more importantly, it’s just fun.

Which is what it’s all about.