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Tokyo Comic-Con Bans Males Crossplaying

Tokyo Comic-Con has raised eyebrows in the fan community for specifically banning male crossplay. The rule is listed on the event's official cosplay guidelines as a bullet point beneath restrictions like no real military costumes, excessive skin exposure, and transparent costumes.

This particular ban, targeting only men dressing as female characters but not vice-versa, is actually surprisingly common at cosplay events in Japan. According to Naoko Tachibana, a photographer who built her career providing services for LGBT minorities, events place this specific ban out of fear of "not passing" costumers. Event staff are wary of attracting a large number of stereotypically unattractive men dressed as women. Crossplay used to be banned entirely from an event in Osaka that took place in a government-owned building, but residents were able to convince the government to lift the ban.

Tokyo Comic-Con is not related to the popular San Diego Comic-Con convention. San Diego Comic-Con does not have an equivalent ban at its convention.

Despite references made on Tokyo Comic-Con's webpage, the convention is in no way associated with Comic-Con International. This article was updated to reflect this information.

[Via Rocket News 24]