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[hellparadiso]

What's the concensus on these? To clarify, I'm specifically referring to girls taking a traditionally male or non-gender-specific (like animals) character and putting a feminine spin on it.

My opinion, as I've expressed in other threads, is that people should cosplay whatever, however they want as long as it's not outright offensive by a reasonable person's standards.

But I've done one or two like this, and it seems kind of sexy sometimes. Similarly, when does it go from "sexy" to "slutty" with female-version cosplays?

[Cart-RAT]

sexy: bikini top
slutty: pasties

i don't know if that's a good comparison but just use your best judgment try to avoid the "wardrobe malfunctions" such as having one of the girls fall out or your butt hanging out of your shorts.

[Amanita]

I've been thinking of how to do a female Sephiroth. I would not want to do it exactly like the guys do- with the coat wide open, and the addition of double-sided tape to keep the "girls" from getting loose. That would look hella skanky, IMHO, way more sexy than the male version.

Instead, I think I will opt for wearing a shirt underneath- something that looks like it could concievably come out of Sephiroth's closet if he had one.

[Prota-Girl]

I'm doing something like that along the lines of my "Miss Creeper" Costume. It's based off of the Creeper from DC Comics as well as the cartoon character from Batman:TAS. It's different, but I like to give it a try. And for most things, I find Feminine spin on other costumes to be rather unique. It's usually a matter as to how you portray it. With it be a good rendition of the character, or just down right...eh..? This should be my first and only costume feminizing a male character. I just love The Creeper so much, I wanted to at least try doing something like that.

But I really don't see the harm in it as long as it is done well. ^^ It gives us girls wide huge imaginations something to re-create. 8D

[Pocketfightr]

This topic seems to pop up at least once a year, shame they don't sticky it or something (along with topics about original characters).

If done right/with thought put into it, it can be fun. I agree with Cart-RAT on sexy vs slutty. It's just a matter of being tasteful. I'm not a huge fan of sticking a character in a skimpy outfit when that character's personality doesn't seem like he would wear something like that, if he were a girl. Won't hold it against anyone who does though. Just like with any other cosplay you don't particularly like, just look away.

[magicalgirlj]

I do gender bender cosplay all the time. I usually wear my Shinsengumi outfit with a mini skirt. Tommrow at AMA I am going to cosplay gender bender Okita, my hair will be in pigtails

[Kazephyr]

This kind of cosplay can honestly go two ways...

1. The awesomesauce way. Gorgeous, creative, visually interesting costumes that make you wish you'd thought of it first.

2. The... not-so-awesomesauce way. Usually looks like you raided your closet, shortened everything, and possibly threw on a Party City wig. Or, it looks like you cosplayed a male character but were too lazy to bind.

Either way, cosplay is about having fun, though. I'm just talking in terms of "am I going to walk up and ask for your picture?"

[PsychoLove]

I don't mind the whole "female" version thing so long as it stays with the original idea and character figures as the original male. I once saw a female version of Vash The Stampede done awesomely; she did the coat with a female cut rather then a male cut, the hair was short for a typical anime girl, and her guns seemed a little more feminine.

As per semi-mentioned, I do not like the "female versions" that stray from the character's original idea. I've seen some female Squall Lionharts who wear very tiny mini skirts, the fluffy jacket, and a white bra. Honestly, to each their own, but I do not see that capturing the spirit of Squall in a female form.


And on the sexy / slutty note:

Sexy is a revealing cosplay done accurately and neatly. Slutty is a revealing cosplay that is very sloppy and just thrown together. The first seems obvious that you paid attention to the details and care about the costume. The latter seems like you really just wanted to wear close to nothing and assumed that people wouldn't notice the details next to your amount of showing skin.

I also agree with Cart-RAT. While accuracies are important, keeping in mind that it's better to be tasteful is also key :P

Again, just my opinion. I realize I sound kind of pretentious and mean x3 sorry if anyone is offended!

[hellparadiso]

PsychoLove, you didn't seem pretentious or mean at all - thanks for your insightful opinion!

I haven't decided if I'm going to do it or not - frankly, I can't think of who I'd do. But it's been in the back of my mind lately.

[Kanomi]

My friends did a female version of Sora and his different forms. You can search them up, they're in cosplay chess 2010 at anime north. My friend made Final Form Feme Sora and it looked awesome! Unfortunately my other friend couldn't finish Oathkeeper, so she had to borrow a keyblade xD

[NekoMilly]

I plan on doing a femme Roy Mustang in the future, but it will probably only end up being a black long wig and no biding. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense to change the millitary uniform, so no big change.

I am doing a Sexy no Jutsu style version of a Yugioh character this year. Thanks to Naruto, you can femme any male character and call it SnJ! But really it's just a bikini version of the character.

I feel it's awesome to see characters that are recongnizable but with an obvious twist, like female versions. So I hope if you do it, you'll post pics. ^^

[~H~]

Oddly enough, the "Female Version" cosplays that I've done thus far (Strike, Ken, and Mario) all show less skin than the majority of my other costumes @_@.

Overall, I think that so long as you're not trying too hard to get fanboys' noses to bleed, you'll look great in whatever you wear ^_-.

[blackflame16]

Last year for AFO I cosplayed a girl version of Death the Kid from Soul Eater since it was only my second time cosplaying and I wasn't really comfortable crossplaying yet. It went really good and got a lot of compliments on it. The only issue was this one girl that said: "Oh boy, sexy jutsu Death the Kid. Reallllyy original.....". I was like whatever and ignored her cause she definitely wasn't going to ruin my con experience.

So, I say that making a female version of a male character is fine. I saw someone cosplay a female version of Sora, but she replaced the pants with a skirt and it was really cute. As long as you come up with a reasonable way to make the cosplay into a female without makng it slutty is cool with me. I'm glad that there are other cosplayers who make female versions of male characters, that makes me want to continue making them. And if someone says something negative about it, I'll just shrug them off and enjoy my con ^_^

[Lightane]

I usually only like the female versions of male characters if they are well done. Like for example I saw this super awesome female versions of Mario and Luigi and they even had an obvious guy in a Peach costume with them. That was pretty awesome.

But I don't like the ones where they are overdone like the SNJ Naruto stuff. That's over done. Also the ones that look like they went to Hot Topic and put on a wig for their cosplay. But those are the only things that really bug me.

[Ryouko]

I've been noticing this more of a trend at cons lately, and I like to see how the characters attire and appearance is altered to create the opposite gender version. It takes a lot of creativity and insight to pull it off well, so I say kudos to anyone who attempts it. n.n

I took a photo of one such cosplayer who did Kakashi at A-kon last weekend (if you are this cosplayer, please PM me, I can send you the high-res versions if you'd like. :3)

http://www.kampai-photo.com/photo/ga...gallery/29.jpg
http://www.kampai-photo.com/photo/ga...gallery/30.jpg

I was really, really impressed with her cosplay. @_@ Was so very beautiful and detailed.