I love going to cons. I think they are wonderful places when people everywhere can finally cut loose, be free from all the drama of the world, and become who they want to be for a weekend. However, I’ve been hearing the stories; stories of cosplayers who are getting harassed, verbally and physically. Most of the time it’s a girl who is cosplaying a very attractive looking character. The “normal” response would be to say that maybe the girl shouldn’t have dressed as such a sexy looking character, but then I started hearing other stories; stories about cosplayers who actually dress very modestly or characters that are not at all revealing in the slightest, and yet the harassment continues. This should be proof enough that the cosplayer isn’t the problem, it’s the other person.
It’s sickening how there are people out there that actually have the thought process of “wow, she is dressed really hot, she will totally have sex with me,” and these people have been polluting our cons for a while. It’s also sad how the victims try to defend themselves and end up getting hit with hateful words, being blamed despite being the victim in this, and just being plain mistreated.
I don’t have any horrible experiences of my own. Maybe it’s because I’m male, maybe it’s because I keep to myself a lot during a con, but I’m taking this moment to actually speak out. Just because someone is dressed very sexily and/or as a character that you really really like, that is NOT AN EXCUSE for you to act like a creep to them. They are people as well and have emotions. It will never ever be okay for someone to act like a dick to someone, not matter who they are dressed up as.

This movement was started by a group called the 16-Bit Sirens.  Check out their page: http://www.16bitsirens.com/consent/