People about Cosplay...

The only place it should really matter is in competition. Don’t enter a workmanship based contest with something that you bought or commissioned, and don’t take credit for the work of others.

That said, some contests have a category for commissioned or purchased costumes, you would be fine if you entered there.

I think cosplay is a bit of an art form. A lot of time goes into some cosplay, especially the more meticulous, detail oriented costumes. Because of that, it’s more than just “dressing up” to me. I see it no differently than movie costumes or FX makeup in terms of seriousness. Some people even make careers into it. I assume some others are able to break into other careers like acting or the aforementioned FX makeup.

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea… and I respect that. However, there’s a lot more that goes into cosplay than what people see at face value.

Cosplay is used to portray a character, in complete characterization, sometimes even down to speech and acting.

Culture appropriation, in my opinion, is always negative, portraying double standards that favor white people. For example, hairstyles used by black people seem trashy and inappropriate, but in white people they are deemed edgy.

Cosplay is a representation of the love for a character, they are acting as the character, their race or cultural background of said character usually has nothing to do with the character, it is a simple fact about them.

When a person does “cosplay”, by making fun of another race, say they dress up as a black character by simply putting on brown makeup, this is racism.

However, correctly portraying the character who happens to be black, is cosplay and is not appropriating the culture of said character, simply using their image to act as them.