Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: cosplay, Dramatical Murder, entertainment, free, guardians of the galaxy, Loki of Venus

'Stop The Slut Shaming' – A Cosplay Interview With Loki Of Venus

By Andrea "Yunie" McFall

Joining with Cosplay Blog with a Brain, this is our next cosplayer interview, featuring Loki of Venus! She's a lovely cosplayer from Colorado, who has mastered the ability to play gender roles insanely well in costume!

[Loki of Venus out of costume]

Andrea McFall: What's your cosplay alias and why did you choose it?

Loki of Venus: My alias is Rika or Loki of Venus. The former I actually go by in daily life and the latter was uh…. well, I started out cosplaying Loki and needed a name for a page kind of quickly. I wish I could up and change it but I'm stuck so I make the best!

AM: How many years have you been cosplaying and what got you started?

LoV: Aw man, I've been cosplaying for about 5 years now, been making my own costumes for 2. I've always been a geek, a few friends started bringing me to cons when I was in high school and seeing all of these amazing people dressed up and having a blast was just the coolest thing to me.

[Loki of Venus as Haru from Free!, photo by Irony]

AM: What has been some of your favorite things to work with when constructing costumes and why?

LoV: I've been having the time of my life with Worbla when I can get my hands on it! I've also been learning some leatherworking and its super fun!

AM: What are you excited to be working with in the future and why?

LoV: I'm going to be doing some resin casting here soon once I can afford the startup materials and I'm stoked. It's one of those skills that I've always wanted to have but never thought I'd be able to teach myself – here's to experimentation, right?

AM: What are some of the traits you like to see in other costumes and who do you think does well in them?

LoV: Put some love into it. I think that everyone who works on a costume that they love and want to create is doing it well. Everyone starts somewhere and all of us are always learning, I think "well" is really subjective.

AM: What is your view of the "cosplay scene"?

LoV: Overall, I think it's full of wonderful people and amazing artists. You get your bad apples – bullies, scammers, predators – but I've met some of my absolute best friends through this crazy hobby and that's what I choose to focus on.

AM: What are some of the things you want to see change in the scene?

LoV: Stop the slut shaming. Stop. It. You think so and so's boobs distract from her talent? Good for you, keep it to yourself. I think a lot of us were the kids who were picked on and some of us grew up to be bullies; some of the nastiness I've seen directed at genuinely good people is ridiculous. I'd also love to see more respect for people who do costume commissions – if we're taking the time and money to make you something and you don't give credit, that's taking business from people who are trying to make a living. I think that people who don't craft oftentimes don't realize exactly how much effort goes into the process and don't get that a lack of credit is an implication that the work they're wearing was made by them.

[Loki of Venus as Moondragon from Guardians of the Galaxy, photo by First Person Shooter]

AM: What is some advice you could give people starting to get into cosplay?

LoV: This is actually advice a friend gave me a while ago: if you HAVE to compare yourself to anyone, compare to yourself. You're not going to start off being Yaya Han, if you can look back on your old work and notice that you've improved (and you will, I promise) that's what counts.

AM: What are some of your favorite conventions you've attended and why?

LoV: DragonCon was pretty much the best time of my life, I love the local scene but there's something amazing about being in a strange city and a group of people you largely don't know/know only via the internet and feeling such an incredible sense of community.

AM: Give a random fact about one of your costumes that you're proud of!

LoV: Shiroba from DRAMAtical Murder wasn't the most complicated build I've done, but the makeup work that went into him was really intense. That's four layers of body paint, two different kinds and a couple layers of stage powder keeping it smooth. Also his wig is actually pretty sharp and has poked a few friends on a couple occasions.

[Loki of Venus as Shiroba from DRAMAtical Murder, photo by Rachel]

Thanks for the interview, Loki of Venus! You can see more of her work on her Facebook page and her Tumblr!

Andrea "Yunie" McFall is a co-host of podcast Panel 2 Panel. She also works with Anime Jam Session and Cosplay Blog with a Brain, spreading as much geekiness around as possible. You can find her on Twitter as @Koiengi and on Facebook under Yunie/Koi.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!