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The Art of Cosplay Lewds

“All you do is look cute and take naked pictures of yourself!" sure Karen...

By Yarn Goddess CosplayPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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2018 NSFW Chel Set

Too many people assume that creating “sexy” content is easy. “All you do is look cute and take naked pictures of yourself! That’s not real work,” is something that is said frequently about “NSFW” cosplayers and artists and it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Cosplaying by itself is difficult—we (cosplayers) are really out here going, “I’m going to take up no less than three professions today and do them all for one project!” Some of us come pre-equipped with the knowledge for sewing, crafting and painting but more often than not we’re coming in with a hot glue gun, a borrowed sewing machine, a long playlist of YouTube tutorials and a dream.

The hardest part about cosplaying is the final step—putting it on and sharing your efforts with the world. Presenting regular cosplays is intimidating enough, presenting “lewd” cosplays is a different kind of fear. Whether it’s online or in person, “NSFW” or “Lewd” cosplayers are looked down on. As if us recreating the highly suggestive anime content that we ALL enjoy makes us less of a cosplayer.

I frequently tweet about the hypocrisy of the cosplay community when it comes to their “acceptance” of Lewd cosplayers. The same community that single handedly supported the “Anime Waifu/Husbando” body pillow industry are quick to throw independent artists under the bus for “ruining” cosplay. Asking for money for our efforts is viewed as “whoring” ourselves out and a “last resort” to making money. The assumption that anyone who makes lewd content—cosplay or otherwise—is struggling and doing something they don’t want to do is ridiculous.

Personally, I enjoy making NSFW content. Two years ago you couldn’t tell me I would be here, crocheting lingerie sets each month and making money from gifs and videos I share on Snapchat. Creating NSFW content is a different kind of freedom that cosplaying led me to. Through cosplaying I learned how to pose for photos that best showed off my outfits. I decided to take it a step further and learned how to pose for photos that best showed off my body.

At first it was difficult—I didn’t know what poses worked and what didn’t, and some shots I thought I would like, I ended up hating. There was also the issue of taking some shots that I really loved but wasn’t sure how it would be received online. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to publicly share THAT part of me.

Eventually I did and as I got more comfortable I thought, “Cool! This is getting pretty easy,” and then I looked back at my last round of photos and realized my backgrounds and poses were simple compared to “professional” Lewd cosplayers. They weren’t bad but you can’t always use the same four poses in every set, so began the next round of leveling—creating dynamic backgrounds and poses.

The most difficult thing about content creating—sex work and other— is keeping your budget reasonable, managing your time, and keeping content fresh. Buying new lingerie sounds fun but it gets expensive fast when each set is $20+ and your ordering three new ones every month. Creating a new background is fun but it’s incredibly easy to drop $50+ on a backdrop. Just the backdrop—not decorations, pillows, rugs, lighting or anything else.

And lastly posing—Lewd cosplayers make poses look easy and comfortable which is probably our only fault. For most of my shoots I take a warm shower, do yoga for 20-30 minutes beforehand and practice a new pose before I start shooting. Last year I managed to hurt my back (picture below) for one of my favorite poses and I had to put off shooting my next set for a few days. After every shoot I usually end up with 100 photos to narrow down to 20 for editing.

All of this is just for me to take a naked picture of myself and “look cute,” am I right?

Outside of all of the difficulties that come with creating NSFW content it’s really fun to make. Every year I get a little closer to 30 and I think to myself, “Will I stop?” and the answer is always, “Nope!” even if I wasn’t making a living from my photos I would still find time to shoot lewd pictures. It’s like for a moment my body isn’t judged or ridiculed for not being something it’s not—it’s beautiful with its scars, lines and dark patches. Everyone should have a moment like that for themselves.

Lewd cosplayers are legit cosplayers—we put as much effort into our shoots as anyone else. For anyone who says otherwise just remember, in the infamous words of KayBear, “My butthole is worth more than you.”

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About the Creator

Yarn Goddess Cosplay

2018 is the year I decided to throw my voice in the mix and talk about cosplay community issues such as race, cosplay politics and overall share my experience and observations as a African-Caribbean Cosplayer.

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