Tailor Made: Crossplay and Gender Bending in the Cosplay Community

Everyone in Denver knows that Pride usually overlaps with the uber-geek convention, Denver Comic Con. There’s even a running joke that sometimes, on this particular weekend, it’s impossible to tell if those strolling through downtown are on their way to PrideFest or Comic Con. That’s because Denver Comic Con, like Pride, features its own version of drag.

Cosplay dominates geek conventions. Attendees don the visages of their favorite pop-culture characters from comics, film, video games, and television. For some cosplayers, that means taking on the identity of a character who may be a gender different than their own. This drag version of cosplay falls under two categories: “crossplay” and “gender bending.”

Crossplay occurs whenever a cosplayer’s outfit presents a character of their opposite gender. Crossplay is the cosplay equivalent to cross-dressing. Gender bending, which is trickier to pin down, happens whenever a cosplayer switches the gender (or sex) of a character.

And according to people who’ve been knee-deep in the convention scene, this queerish phenomena may be on the rise.

Kaai Santerelli is a professional cosplayer who built his career on crossplay and bending. At this year’s Denver Comic Con, he arrived as a feminized version of Captain America — adorned in an anne-styled wig and an Old-Glory-fashioned cocktail dress he hand-stitched himself. Instead of carrying an indestructible shield, he wielded a dainty purse with a white star at its center.

For over three years, Santerelli traveled around the country judging for cosplay competitions. He says that as LGBT communities gain more media exposure, crossplay and bending have become more common, too.

“Heterosexual and homosexual people alike — cis and trans — are able to express their gender, as they feel it in the moment, a lot more often,” Santerelli says. “Politically, socially, and culturally we’re changing and challenging what it is to be male or female.”

Even the comics industry took note of this sea change with gender identities. Traditionally, comic books created female versions of their popular male characters, such as She-Hulk, Supergirl, and X-23. In 2014, Marvel did something completely unexpected and switched the sex of Thor, one of their most prized franchises. Santerelli notes, “Thor’s hammer says, ‘Whosoever holds this hammer shall wield the power of Thor,’ not ‘himsoever.’”

Another professional cosplayer, who goes by the name Warumono, presented at a Comic Con panel titled “Crossplay and Gender Bending,” where he gave makeup and clothing tips to other crossplayers. For nearly a decade, he’s flown coast-to-coast to attend conventions, typically cosplaying as male Japanese rock stars known for their androgynous get-ups and homoerotic stage antics. Regarding crossplay and bending, he stressed that these behaviors aren’t new.

“I’ve seen people crossplaying all the time, even back in the day before it was okay to be out,” Waru says. “Crossplay in the convention scene was always really popular. It’s more popular crossplaying women-to-men than men-to-women, probably because it’s more socially acceptable.”

At this year’s Denver Comic Con, women did, in fact, crossplay or bend more than the men attendees.

Jennifer Leigh Garfield, who regularly gender-bends her cosplay, weighed in on this disparity between female and male cosplayers. For her, cosplaying a female character often means being scantily clad. Since cosplayers strive to accurately depict their characters, women who prefer less-exposing costumes are stuck with just a handful of modestly dressed female characters. There’s also the issue of simply wanting to depict a character someone loves.

“Just because you’re female doesn’t mean you particularly relate to female characters, since there’s a lot more to people than just gender,” Garfield says. “A male character may just resonate more. So there are many more options available to female cosplayers if they opt to bend or cross.”

The choice to cross or bend ultimately depends on personal preference — with a dash of bravery. One cosplayer at Denver Comic Con gave some advice to her fellow cosplayers. Luna Acquavella, who is also an LGBT advocate, explains that most people never think twice about the more outlandish choices for cosplay. “If people can dress up as Transformers, zombies, and Wookies,” she says, “then you can dress as any gender you desire. Never let factors out of your control determine who you choose to cosplay. Be yourself and never apologize for it.”