I don’t really see how, “Please refrain from giving the studios free advertising while we’re fighting for our livlyhoods,” is “going against the fans.”
Because you don’t alienate the fans. Right or wrong, they’re not part of the game. They’re not in show business. Actors know that, or at least they should.
Plus, cosplayers invest a great deal of time, money and work in their costumes, for no pay, and you want to take that away from them?
Y’know, I follow quite a few convention Facebook pages, and am really not seeing this backlash at all from the fans.
If that’s true, then fine. Cool. I’m just thinking about this poor hypothetical 19-year-old girl from Pittsburg who’s been working on her Ahsoka Tano costume for the past three months, and now she’s being guilted into leaving it at home because of some labor dispute on the other side of the country. If that girl doesn’t exist, then I suppose I don’t have a problem with a boycott.
So you are just fine with strikes…as long as nobody, even hypothetical people, are inconvenienced?
I don’t see what would be alienating about this. I don’t do cosplay, but if I did, this sounds like it’d be a very easy way to show my support for the strike.
Anyway, “cosplayers aren’t in show business,” isn’t a 100% accurate statement. A lot of them do paid work for studios - the Stormtrooper cosplay org 501st Legion does paid gigs for LucasFilm/Disney pretty often. And a lot of the really top-tier cosplayers work in Hollywood as costumers and prop-makers.
Plus, there’s the whole “workers solidarity” thing. I don’t have to work in Hollywood to appreciate what it feels like to be fucked over by an employer, or to want to help some people who are fighting for a fair share of the fruits of their own labor.
For a few months, while the strike plays out? That doesn’t sound like an unreasonable ask. And they can still work on their costumes and show them off to their friends or other private situations, just don’t wear them to the big cons for a while.
She’ll be inconvenienced in the same way you and I will be inconvenienced - there will be an extended period of time in which we won’t have new shows and mnovies we want to see. And I accept that. What the actors and writers are fighting for is important - I mean, not important important, like climate change important, or Supreme Court important, but show business important, which is important in an inessential sort of way - and I support them. I just don’t see why the people who love it the most need to be targeted to suffer.
Besides, the fans are fans because of the actors at least as much as they are because of the intellectual property. Coming as their favorite characters is a way of showing support for the actors playing them.
They’re workers fighting for fair treatment from their employers - their strike is every bit as essential as a teamsters strike. Workers don’t have less rights just because you don’t respect the industry they work in.
You can like a media property and not actually give a damn about the strike. Or maybe you actually do sympathize with the strikers but don’t appreciate being told how you should behave.
(This time I’ll explicitly link my Seinfeld reference instead of mention it vaguely.)
And what have you done to support the teamsters when they strike?
Look, I come from a country with a lot of strikes, and I’ve learned that as a member of the general public, I’m usually the target of the attack - the strikers hurt me so that I’ll influence their employers. And that’s fine: that’s how workers get their rights. Just don’t ask me to become emotionally involved every single time. Supporting one side means resenting that side slightly less than the other.
…well this thread took a very… weird turn.
Pretty much, yeah. Sorry about that.
I come from the US, where people almost never strike. Things have to get exceptionally dire before American labor stands up for itself.
Okay? Then it sounds like the actors are doing just the right thing by “targeting” cosplayers.
There’s a line, and I think they crossed it. Feel free to disagree.
Part is also that only 10% of American workers belong to unions; as rare as union or guild* strikes are, strikes by non-union employees are, if not completely non-existent, exceptionally rare.
*- Most of the workers’ organizations in the entertainment industry are “guilds,” not unions. My understanding of the distinction is that a guild provides collective bargaining for independent contractors (actors, writers, directors, etc.), while a union does the same for actual employees.
Here is what is being asked, and not asked, of cosplayers: https://bleedingcool.com/tv/to-cosplay-or-not-to-cosplay-sdcc-2023-sag-aftra-wga-update/?fbclid=IwAR0f73YpBBu-7Nw_lwjLHHARyZ-is5mMJsBTxs-_vhQkFHQwQjIAYCFFVmY
Your hypothetical 19 year old is going to be all right.
From the linked post/article:
How does this apply to me if I’m a non-union influencer? Any non-member seeking future membership in SAG-AFTRA who performs covered work or services for a struck company during the strike will not be admitted into membership in SAG-AFTRA. See Strike Notice and Order.
I wonder how they’ll enforce this. Will there be people at the convention noting the names of every cosplayer portraying a struck character? Does this con enforce name badges?
Im sure this is covered somewhere, but my Q is simple so ill ask it anyway. Are they asking people not to wear Star Trek shirts at a Star Trek convention? If it wern’t for those conventioneers of yore there wouldnt BE a Star Trek aside from TOS and maybe TAS.
See the link right above your post.
I read it. Its kind of confusing. Wearing your old 1977 handmade POS TOS (Heh) shirt to a convention isnt anymore cosplaying then wearing a Dwight Evans jersey to a Red Sox game is.
If this is true that they don’t want ANY ‘gear’ worn as opposed to a Captain Sparrow costume or a costume promoting a current product…well Im amazed i found out here and not the usual idiots on YT. But if it is draconian and people start getting guilted and called scab at conventions you can bet the usual idiots will twig onto it.