The Cosplay and Controversy of Yaya Han
Agents of Cosplay catches up with the cosplayer Yaya Han.
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Agents of Cosplay catches up with the cosplayer Yaya Han.
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Scarim Coral said:This is the first time I heard of the controversy? In saying so I don't exactly follow her cosplay activities on a daily basis.
Razhem said:What´s the controversy? She seems to have a very good head on her shoulders.
Alar said:I love genderbent cosplay. What's the big deal?
I did a bit of digging and found out that during Syfy's Heroes of Cosplay, there was a manufactured disagreement. One of the contests asked Yaya for some advice, she gave it, then the contestant made a design that was closer to what Jessica Nigri's style is (i.e. more sexually provacative). Yaya made a comment that, in full, was measured disagreement, but was reframed by the show as a shot at Nigri in a sex vs. talent bent.RealRT said:Controversy? TV reality show? What are you talking about?
Well, I think there's a pretty big difference in someone like Han who is a normal, rational human being who thinks (absolutely correctly) that women should be treated equal to men and someone like She Who Will Not Be Named who thinks men are evil and women should be given special privileges and if you disagree with her, then you're a sexist who wants to chain women up in your basement because you played video games once.megs1120 said:She's pretty and a feminist, of course she's going to be catch a ton of hate.
Sadly a lot of reality TV is manufactured and edited to increase drama, even the really tame stuff. Heck, I'm pretty sure the Game Grumps did it for their Guild Grumps, but they may have been doing it just to play to the reality TV stereotype of hyped/fake drama.Thunderous Cacophony said:It caused a lot of people in the cosplay community to turn against the show, because Yaya's shtick is public support of cosplay in all forms and styles, while at the same time people watching the show who weren't as clued in took umbrage with one of the ladies involved. Not a good thing all around, and Syfy backed off on the aggressive editing.
Sources:
http://nerdbastards.com/2013/08/21/sexuality-vs-talent-why-manufactured-drama-on-syfys-heroes-of-cosplay-is-ruining-cosplay/
http://nerdbastards.com/2014/05/27/interview-yaya-han-talks-drama-sexuality-and-how-were-all-in-this-together/#more-155586
Just quoting because of a bit of relevance...Alar said:Sadly a lot of reality TV is manufactured and edited to increase drama, even the really tame stuff. Heck, I'm pretty sure the Game Grumps did it for their Guild Grumps, but they may have been doing it just to play to the reality TV stereotype of hyped/fake drama.Thunderous Cacophony said:It caused a lot of people in the cosplay community to turn against the show, because Yaya's shtick is public support of cosplay in all forms and styles, while at the same time people watching the show who weren't as clued in took umbrage with one of the ladies involved. Not a good thing all around, and Syfy backed off on the aggressive editing.
Sources:
http://nerdbastards.com/2013/08/21/sexuality-vs-talent-why-manufactured-drama-on-syfys-heroes-of-cosplay-is-ruining-cosplay/
http://nerdbastards.com/2014/05/27/interview-yaya-han-talks-drama-sexuality-and-how-were-all-in-this-together/#more-155586
That's the controversy i heard about. more specifically an autistic kid who made a costume he was so proud of his family all made costumes to go with it, and had planned and rehearsed this whole skit which was amazing because the kid due to his condition was almost completely asocial and the parents could not believe how outgoing he was. they were supposed to be in line for like 30 minutes and it turned into 3 hours after which they said come back tomorrow and tomorrow turned into another 3 hour wait where they were essentially shuffled across the stage as quickly as possible and the kid didn't get to do anything. the parents were heartbroken and wrote a blog post about it that Yaya actually responded too and honestly, her response is what made me dislike her and stop following her. I don't want to be accused of misquoting so i suggest you try to find it yourself but it was basically along the lines of "aw i know, it can really suck sometimes having to wear this big sweaty cosplays for so long, we sure suffer for our fandoms don't we. sorry you had a bad experience." that by itself wouldn't be SO bad if it weren't blatantly obvious scyfy was responsible for the long wait times and the crushing of this boy's skit, though he did get to do it after all once all the cameras and whatnot cleared out and most cosplayers stayed to cheer him on but the panel had ended.Okamisama said:Just quoting because of a bit of relevance...Alar said:Sadly a lot of reality TV is manufactured and edited to increase drama, even the really tame stuff. Heck, I'm pretty sure the Game Grumps did it for their Guild Grumps, but they may have been doing it just to play to the reality TV stereotype of hyped/fake drama.Thunderous Cacophony said:It caused a lot of people in the cosplay community to turn against the show, because Yaya's shtick is public support of cosplay in all forms and styles, while at the same time people watching the show who weren't as clued in took umbrage with one of the ladies involved. Not a good thing all around, and Syfy backed off on the aggressive editing.
Sources:
http://nerdbastards.com/2013/08/21/sexuality-vs-talent-why-manufactured-drama-on-syfys-heroes-of-cosplay-is-ruining-cosplay/
http://nerdbastards.com/2014/05/27/interview-yaya-han-talks-drama-sexuality-and-how-were-all-in-this-together/#more-155586
Game Grumps actually talked a bit about Heroes. Ross is married/in-a-relationship with Holly, obviously... And because of that he was made aware of a certain clause in the contracts. Namely any spouse or significant other was essentially required to appear on the show, whether or not they or the cosplayer themself wanted it. Among the editing and the like as mentioned above?
There was an entire and massive post that detailed the amount of abuse of power there was going on at conventions by way of the Sy-Fy channel strong arming and pushing people around. Events being shoved into one small timespan despite it being labeled as "two days by the show", entire lines of people being kicked out of competitions just to save time and condense things down. Entire skits planned by groups? Dropped and reduced to quick walk out and backs while the star contestants were allowed to do their entire skit.
That's not even touching on some of the shoddy cosplay costumes that 'won' during the course of the series. Not that all of them were bad, mind you, but there is one or two that still stand out that should not of won at all, by any account, yet still did.
Ahh... so this is where the Controversy was hiding. Shoulda guessed it wouldn't be in the actual contentmegs1120 said:She's pretty and a feminist, of course she's going to be catch a ton of hate.