Geo Da Sponge said:
After reading over the article linked, and thinking over the term "6 of 9" the more I realize how fitting the meaning is.
I feel you are completely missing the point of that article by a good mile, and so is the reason for it being linked in the comic. As stated in the article:
And be it known that I am good friends with several stunningly beautiful women who cosplay as stunningly beautiful characters from comics, sci-fi, fantasy and other genres of fandom. They are, each of them, bone fide geeks. They belong with us. Being beautiful is not a crime.
Flaunt it if you got it ? and if you're a geek, male or female, and you're strikingly handsome or stunningly beautiful, and you cosplay as a handsome or beautiful character, more power to us all. Hot geeks are hot.
What I'm talking about is the girls who have no interest or history in gaming taking nearly naked photos of themselves with game controllers draped all over their body just to play at being a "model." I get sick of wannabes who couldn't make it as car show eye candy slapping on a Batman shirt and strutting around comic book conventions instead.
While I do not attend cons myself, I do know a few cosplayers from a LARP I participate in, each of them being female. I have seen the effort that they put into their costumes in order to pull it off, and the dedication they have to the source material. They're some of the most diehard fans out there for their respective materials. And judging from the pictures I see from some cons, the effort displayed in the costuming skills of several, they are not alone.
[HEADING=1]HOWEVER.[/HEADING]
They are not the only ones who attend these events. Again, when I see pictures of cosplayers from cons, some stick out very sourly as people who have gone their only to flaunt their sex appeal. These are the 6 of 9's spoken of in the article.
To illustrate, let's show an example:
This is an attractive cosplayer.
I would be surprised if this was a real cosplayer who was a fan of comic book culture.
One of these people has obviously gone to some lengths to ensure there is some dedication and accuracy to the costume they are wearing, while the other likely threw on some underwear with blue stars, put on the skimpiest top possible, and slapped a couple pieces of fucking tinfoil to their wrists in a couple minutes.
I'll end this by saying that in my mind, there are 4 possibilities for a cosplayer:
1) Fan of Material + Extensive Work Done on Attire = Dedicated Cosplayer
2) Not Fan of Material + Extensive Work Done on Attire = Someone who loves to make costumes and dress up in them, may be a fan of other aspects but would like to costume as something else
3) Fan of Material + Little Effort Done on Costume = Someone who is a fan, but either lacks the skills, time, initiative, etc. to dedicate to dressing up to the role
4) Not a Fan of Material + Little Effort Done on Costume = Why are you here?
And while it's true that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and that the only way you'll confirm which of these 4 potential categories a person falls under is by actually talking to them and such (And don't feel the need to investigate if they are or are not a fan just for the sake of confirming suspicions, go do something else), there is no denying that there are attention whores out there, both male and female, who only do what they do to attract the attention of others. After all, there exist booth babes.
Again, I will say, I am not a con attender, I do not have firsthand experience, but what I do have are the stories I've been told by those who do, and the pictures shown of some that go. I do believe this wannabe phenomenon of 6 of 9 really does exist.