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Journalist Claims That the Popularity of Cosplay is a Sign Of the U.S.' Impending Financial Doom
posted on by Bamboo Dong
Cosplayers are harbingers of a new, terrible recession. Or so says James Pethokoukis, freelance journalist and DeWitt Wallace Fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.
In a piece for The Week entitled "Why the rise of cosplay is a bad sign for the U.S. economy," Pethokoukis draws a parallel between Japan's stagnant job market and its cosplay scene to argue that the increase in U.S. cosplayers is signaling the same economic outcome stateside. After all, dressing up like Doctor Who is preferable to "scouring the classifieds for menial jobs."
In his article, Pethokoukis talks about Japan's socioeconomic struggles, saying that young adults are spending longer and longer living with their parents, "unmarried and childless." Despite their inability to land a job, though, they do have "plenty of time to dress up like wand-wielding sailor girls and cybernetic alchemist soldiers from the colorful world of anime cartoons and manga comics," seeking to find fictional escape from the realities of the world.
And apparently the booming popularity of the U.S. cosplay scene is also a sign of our impending financial ruin, with more and more recent college grads preferring to escape into the world of fantasy and cosplay instead of facing the sordid facts.
"When you're disillusioned with the reality of your early adult life, dressing up like Doctor Who starts looking better and better. It's not to say that all or even most cosplay aficionados are struggling to find work. It's only to say that any rise in people fleeing reality for fantasy suggests problems with our reality."
He ends the article by saying that there are steps the U.S. could take to prevent the country's downward spiral, but sadly, "that's not where we're heading." Rather, the majority of the workforce will likely just slog along, amusing themselves with interesting diversions, "like using Yelp to find tasty-but-cheap eats. Or spending hours social networking. And, of course, engaging in cosplay mimicry."
To read the full article, click here.
