Every year, thousands of nerdy folk flock to many a-Comic Con, be it San Diego International (which gets 130,000 attendees per year), or one in your home town. As people dress as their favorite characters (cosplaying), the costumes never cease to amaze. Within this realm of fun times, however, appears different standards when it comes to cosplay for men and women. 

Men often dress as Han Solo, Oberyn Martell, Aragorn, Legolas, and other high-profile (and sometimes ridiculously hot) male characters from all of our favorite nerdy TV shows. The women usually, and are sometimes expected to, wear outrageous (and sometimes pretty sexy) outfits such as the Leia slave outfit, Ellaria Sand’s Dornish look, and Daenerys Targaryen’s rugged look from her days as Khal Drogo’s wife. Some dress as Doctor Who companion Pond and Rose Tyler, or Hermione Granger. 

However, it is much more likely that a girl will dress to sexy extremes when she cosplays. 

Now let me be perfectly clear, going sexy when you cosplay is not a bad thing. I will repeat that: going sexy when you cosplay is not a bad thing. It is the fact that it is sometimes expected for girls to be sexy when they cosplay. It should never be expected for anyone to be anything when they cosplay. 

Women in America today are held to impossible sexual standards, and are both celebrated and demonized when they dress sexy. A woman should be free to cosplay as she chooses, be that a sexy outfit, or a more modest one. A cosplay outfit is meant to be done for fun, and it should be comfortable when worn. A woman should not feel self-conscious if she goes too sexy, or if she chooses a more moderate look.  

It’s not the other cosplayers who expect women to dress in this certain way, but rather it is a symptom of a larger social phenomenon. Back at Thanksgiving, a Congressional aide made some remarks about Sasha’s and Malia’s outfits choices during the White House Thanksgiving dinner, calling the dresses too short. The aide later apologized, and resigned from the post. This one comment demonstrates our society’s double standard perfectly. SlutWalk, a protest against rape culture and objectification of women, points to this double standard of dress. No one gets upset if a man dresses sexy, and no one gets upset if he chooses to go more moderate. It’s only women. This standard is everywhere, including cosplay. 

So ladies, choose whatever character you want when you cosplay. I will be attempting one of Margaery Tyrell’s blue dress looks. Gentlemen, the same goes for you: choose whatever character you want when you choose to cosplay. You want to dress as Chewbacca or Darth Maul, go for it! Cosplay doesn’t have to reinforce the virgin/whore binary—because let’s be real, we all want to be Hermoine at the end of the day.