Quote PandoraCaitiff:

Honestly? Its not a costume I'd have done, and I probably wouldn't have been comfortable being around you wearing it.

As established, I'm pretty damn white, so I'm not offended, but I'd be worried about someone not familiar with the costume (or cosplay), seeing artificial brown skin, and tribal/native dress, and getting upset, offended or even aggressive.

Quote PandoraCaitiff:


HOW DARE YOU SIR!

I'm half Zentraedi on my dad's side and I take great offence at that!

Quote S-Lawliet:


Interestingly, there is actually a rare medical condition that can turn your skin blue or grey called Argyria

Quote WarriorTeddy:
That was an interesting article. Raises issues I always suspected were out there but have never experienced.

Personally, I have not had cause (yet) to cosplay a fair skinned character. This might be because subconsciously I feel I won't pull it off well or maybe I just don't want the drama that might come with it.

However, being someone that is always willing to pour petrol on fire, I might just attempt Superman. Yup, a black baldheaded Superman with maybe a glued-on curly hair patch for comic effect

Quote JaeXD:


This would make me want to do a brown Batman.

Quote WarriorTeddy:


Haha. Do it! Then we'll have the makings of a multi-cultural Justice League

Quote Sley:
It's a really interesting article. Fortunately, I guess, I haven't personally come across that topic - but I read about it a lot. Mainly due to the character Korra (from the new Avatar series). I wondered what her skintone was, because in the series it varies a bit. I came across awesome cosplayers, but when I read some comments underneath their pictures, I was shocked.

Either they were accused of 'whitewashing' or 'faking tan' and thus 'expressing racism'.

I don't really get why making my skin tone a bit darker is supposedly racism? We're talking about characters here, invented persons and we're trying to do them justice, as good as we can. I am white as a sheet and I thought about cosplaying Korra, but after looking through the internet.. I changed my mind. I still would love to cosplay her, but I really don't want to read 'you are a racist' underneath my photos.

I get that painting yourself white or black may look ridiculous - but that's an entirely different thing.
Why is it racist if I simply happen to love a black character and just want to do this cosplay? Am I not rather showing my love for that character with my attempts?

To me skintone doesn't matter. Whether you're black, yellow, white, green, blue or red - why not do it? I have to admit, though, that sometimes it mayb look odd, but that's a different topic

Quote Carmina:

I think its perfectly fine and not offensive at all for you to cosplay her. I don't think even using fake tan to subtly alter skintone is offensive. What I think people are bothered about is slathering on layers of makeup to fake a skintone, which can look like blackface and probably looks rubbish anyway.

The 'whitewashing' thing I've mostly come accross in Hollywood casting when a white actor/ predominantly white cast is cast to play a non-white role (a complaint that got raised with the casting of Avatar: The Last Airbender). What people are really bothered about there is the lack of visibility of non-white characters in mainstream media, which is not at all the same as whether you should cosplay someone or not.

Quote Sley:


I'd have to use fake tan, because even in summer I am unfortunately really pale ^^;
But yeah, it might look rubbish - ah no, let me correct myself: I think it does

Quote Karakulz:

Fake tan away! Haha, Korra is the exact cosplay I was refering too when I said I will need to get a tan.

I honestly see no problem with Fake tanning or natural tanning, in fact if my natural tan doesn't work out then fake tan is the only other way to go if I want to portray her more accurately! Me being very pale myself.

Quote Ashy-kun:
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Or in my case, just when I thought I was safe to do my Kinkotsuman cosplay. With all the talk about blackface and racism in cosplay, I'm now back to square one, fretting about my Kinkotsuman cosplay, and the unfortunate implications about using black face paint to wear under a skull mask. Just for reference's sake, here's the topic I posted about it on the Ayacon forums, with said worries.

http://www.ayacon.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,150.0.html