Agents of Cosplay: The Cosplay and Controversy of Yaya Han

Liana Kerzner

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The Cosplay and Controversy of Yaya Han

Agents of Cosplay catches up with the cosplayer Yaya Han.

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Remus

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Nov 24, 2012
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Where's the controversy? She's serious about her work, regardless of what others think of her and will take on any role regardless of the character's original race. She has the body type fitting of heroic fantasy characters. I respect people who can put themselves out there like that. It's a skill I myself reserve only for Halloween, but that's me. And what's with the syfy show getting shit on? Is it because they focused on the competitive aspect, trying to turn it into a drama? Or because this half dozen cosplayers were the show's focus and not the hobby as a whole? I've heard conflicting reports. I personally enjoyed the show. Besides, it's kinda hard to take broad strokes like some wanted and make it good for TV. This is why Face/Off is a purely competitive show going from a dozen to 3 people by a season's end. Smaller scope creates a tighter arc and is easier to follow as well as focus on the details. But that's just my opinion.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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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.

Regardless I still think she is a dame and an awesome cosplayer and I liked her even more due to her talked about the passion of cosplay, the fun side of it (my brother is under the belief that certain bodytype/ race of people should cosplay only while I believed everyone and anyone can cosplay) and showing respect or courtesy toward them.
 

megs1120

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Jul 27, 2009
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She's pretty and a feminist, of course she's going to be catch a ton of hate.
 

Imp_Emissary

Mages Rule, and Dragons Fly!
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First I heard of Yaya and the controversy. Haven't seen Hero's of Cosplay, so I can't say for myself. Yaya seems to have a lot of talent and passion for cosplay, so hopefully that will be noticed over the perception that she just wants attention.

Also, feel free to include Momo as much as ya want. ;3 Can't have too much purring in one's life.
 

RealRT

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Feb 28, 2014
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Controversy? TV reality show? What are you talking about? Also, hell yeah, Yaya Han! Now, while I admit to finding her sexually attractive, it's not like that's all her cosplay is all about - I mean, have you SEEN how complex and faithful those costumes are? A lot of work and care was put in them, that's really great.
 
Jan 12, 2012
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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?
RealRT said:
Controversy? TV reality show? What are you talking about?
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.

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
 

LysanderNemoinis

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Nov 8, 2010
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megs1120 said:
She's pretty and a feminist, of course she's going to be catch a ton of hate.
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.
 

Alar

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Dec 1, 2009
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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
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.
 

Okamisama

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Alar said:
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
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.
Just quoting because of a bit of relevance...
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.
 

Sampler

He who is not known
May 5, 2008
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Ooh, she's on at OzComicCon this weekend, might go pay her a visit, seems cool
 

nightmare_gorilla

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Jan 22, 2008
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Okamisama said:
Alar said:
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
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.
Just quoting because of a bit of relevance...
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.
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.

I dunno, I mean she's not a PR person so you can't expect a perfect response but I expected a little more empathy from someone people kinda turned into the unofficial face of cosplay. I still respect her work and i don't think she's a bad person but It's a little disappointing when i see her stuff now.
 

Mullahgrrl

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Apr 20, 2008
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This is the first I heard of her but she seems like a wonderful person and cosplayer.

However, I couldn't help but to think of this Film;

https://youtu.be/ftf9WrMXh7s
 

iller3

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Nov 5, 2014
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megs1120 said:
She's pretty and a feminist, of course she's going to be catch a ton of hate.
Ahh... so this is where the Controversy was hiding. Shoulda guessed it wouldn't be in the actual content

On substance: I LOVE her suggestion that Feminism shouldn't be about covering up sexual attributes b/c they're "objectifying". It should be about galvanizing against petty criticisms instead of playing the victim card or dubbing everything harassment. This is the same exact processes most Artists go through and there's only so many times you can Cry Wolf