In 1510, the newly wed Catherine of Aragon was surprised in her bedchamber by a gang of rough men dressed in hooded cloaks and armed with swords, bows, and arrows “like out lawes, or Robyn Hodes men.” The brigands were in fact her husband, Henry VIII, and several other noblemen playing an erotic game with the ladies of the court. This was probably not the first example of cosplay, but it included all its most important characteristics. Cosplay involves dressing up in stylized costume (cos) for fun (play). The practice is at least as old as the Tudors, but the term is of recent vintage: It was first used to describe the practice of a Japanese subculture whose members dressed as anime characters and gathered at comic-book festivals. It quickly spread to the West and thrived at events like the New York Comic Con, where favored characters included superheroes and video-game characters.
Cosplay often carries a hint of sexual fetish. Many anime characters, superheroes, and video-game avatars wear tight, shiny, or revealing clothing, so the costumes serve as an excuse to dress provocatively, much like the nearly ubiquitous sexy versions of every imaginable Halloween costume (sexy cop, sexy nurse, sexy nun.) Dressing as a member of another social class was a common fetish in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance: Aristocratic men dressed as rakish highwaymen in a performance of dangerous virility while female sex workers dressed as noble ladies to indulge the common male fantasy of a tryst with a social superior. The sixteenth-century Italian writer Baldassare Castiglione wrote that “even though he be recognized by all…disguise carries with it a certain freedom and license.” This license would allow the Renaissance courtier to make advances toward a woman he would fear to approach undisguised; it might also allow the woman to return his attention without shame or scandal. The play in cosplay, echoes the play in foreplay—a game of seduction.
Cosplay has come to describe a broader array of activities, many of them much less enjoyable. For example, when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently posed for photos in full makeup along with what appeared to be hair extensions, dressed in a bulletproof vest and ICE cap, surrounded by burly agents, commentators described the spectacle as paramilitary cosplay. When Noem, wearing a similar getup, posed for photos in front of cages packed with undocumented immigrants at a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, pundits began describing her as “ICE Barbie,” a name that’s stuck: One headline read, “ICE Barbie…Kristi Noem’s DHS cosplaying has interfered with agency operations.” Here, vulgar fetishism is on full display, but the fun is gone: The play in cosplay refers only to calculated inauthenticity.