Sacramento's semi-annual anime convention, SacAnime, is doing something I have yet to see being done at any other convention. I have been to a lot of large comic book and anime conventions within the last year. D23, Anime Expo, SDCC, and NYCC just to name a few, but none have a "Cosplay is not consent" panel specifically for participants. You'll see this sign at most conventions:
You won't see a panel like this on the program. Unwanted advances is a very serious problem that happens more than it should at comic conventions. At SacAnime (Winter, 2016), this is the first time the panel is held and was met with a surprisingly positive response, in addition to a great deal of people who really didn't know the definition of consent. Sure, it can be seen as something that is common sense knowledge, there are people who don't understand the boundaries of consent. When it comes to cosplay culture, consent means getting permission before touching someone's cosplay, or body. If they say no, that doesn't mean yes. Cosplay costumes can sometimes be highly sexualized, but this does not mean that men and women want unwanted touching, comments, or sex, or anything that is not consensual.
This panel at SacAnime is a result of an alarming amount of incidents that happened in the summer of 2015. This year, panelists told personal stories and experiences, gave some very good reasons why this is a problem and some simple solutions to help lessen the amount of incidents that took place.
Cosplay is about having fun, unfortunately, there are people who want to screw up the fun for everyone. I hope this idea catches on at some of the larger conventions. Personally, I want to thank SacAnime for bringing, creating and facilitating this panel. One can only hope that panel attendees learned some great information. This was one of the best panels at SacAnime, so if you ever attend the con, be sure to check it out.
You can also watch the video of the Cosplay is not consent panel from Winter 2016 to get an idea of what is discussed at this panel.
