Meet the Woman Who Invented Cosplay

May 9, 2016 12:06 PM

Myrtle "Morojo" Douglas was an early pioneer in the world of speculative fiction. She and Forrest Ackerman produced some of the biggest fanzines of the early SF era, advocated for Esperanto, and invented cosplay (or, as they called it, "futuristicostumes"). Along the way, she even gave a young Ray Harryhausen a start as one of her costume designers.
posted by Etrigan (24 comments total)

Futuristicostumes! Lord. Between that and "scientifiction," you have to wonder about early fandom's obsession with really clumsy portmanteau words.

Honestly, what's the difference between a "futuristicostume" and a... well, a costume?
posted by Naberius at 12:12 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'd think dressing like your favorite literary character goes even further back in time: trilbies, fedoras and pamelas are hats inspired by literary heroines. Trilby sparked a whole fashion fad for stuff the character would have used:

However, on March 19, 1895, a worried editorial in the New York Tribune headlined "Trilbyismus" fumed at an article in a medical journal identifying Trilby as the "exciting cause of a maudlin mania." Conceding that the country was already "beset by a veritable epidemic of Trilby fads," such as "Trilby accents of speech and Trilby poses of person, Trilby tableaus, teas and dances . . . Trilby clubs and reading classes and prize examinations, Trilby nomenclature for everybody and everything," the writer felt that if the Trilbyismus infection were left unchecked, young women would be gravely imperiled. [...]

In homage to Trilby's feet, Trilby shoes were marketed, and fashionable ladies sported a silver scarf pin of a nude foot. The Trilby motif then spread to such foot-related items as socks, shoe laces, garters and bunion chasers. New Yorkers could purchase tootsie-shaped ice creams, there was a Trilby sausage in Philadelphia, and the true worshiper could visit a town cashing in on the boom. A Florida whistle stop in Pasco County, hoping to attract tourists, changed its name from Macon to "Trilby." A street was christened "Little Billee," and the center of town was planned as "Svengali Square."

posted by sukeban at 12:23 PM on May 9, 2016 [14 favorites]

It's not clear from the article, but...if they're defining "cosplay" as "dressing up like your favorite fictional characters" in public environments like conventions, then surely the costume ball tradition, which included fictional characters in its repertoire, predates SF cosplay by at least a century, if not more? Here, for example, is a Victorian costume ball manual which includes directions for everything from Algerian Jews to characters out of Walter Scott novels. (Scott costume balls were quite popular.) And Shakespeare-themed costume balls go back to the eighteenth century.
posted by thomas j wise at 12:29 PM on May 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

Futuristicostumes! Lord. Between that and "scientifiction," you have to wonder about early fandom's obsession with really clumsy portmanteau words.

In my day it was just Costume Call.

Get off my stage.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:32 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's pretty clear this article is defining cosplay as "dressing up as a fictional character in the context of a science fiction convention". Which I think is (one) fair definition -- folks have been playing dress-up forever, but cosplay as we now know it does stem, at least in part, from this root.
posted by feckless at 12:32 PM on May 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

There's the aesthetic dress, too, which was something of a a fantasy version of 14th Century Italianate dress.
posted by sukeban at 12:34 PM on May 9, 2016

early fandom's obsession with really clumsy portmanteau words

Their original term for it was "portmanteawkwords".
posted by cortex at 12:34 PM on May 9, 2016 [41 favorites]

If there is any concept in the world that is going to get "Well, Actually..."-ed, it's probably cosplay, but maybe we don't need to perpetuate the marginalization of a prominent woman in the SF community.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:37 PM on May 9, 2016 [12 favorites]

But we haven't even gotten to tableaux vivants yet! D:
posted by sukeban at 12:49 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

They do allow some nervous crying, but you can tell they don’t like it.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:53 PM on May 9, 2016

I wonder if the enthusiasm for Esperanto explains some of the portmanteawkwords.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:06 PM on May 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

I desperately want to know what color her original costume was, because reproducing it would be fun as hell.
posted by nonasuch at 1:24 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is SF fandom. You can't go too far wrong with a really bright, shiny red.
posted by Naberius at 1:25 PM on May 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

Whoa whoa whoa... the misogynist "fake geek girl", anti-cosplay rhetoric is obviously horrible but this:

With its focus on fashion and creative craftsmanship, cosplay provides a path into fandom for young
women

Implies that young women who aren't into cosplay don't have a place in fandom. And that's some bullshit right there. (Not to mention, of course, the number of dudes for whom cosplay is their entry into fandom).

I had never heard of Morojo, so it's great to learn of her story -- I wish that the "this is the way girls do nerd" stuff had been left out.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:29 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

the writer felt that if the Trilbyismus infection were left unchecked, young women would be gravely imperiled.

Plus ça change...
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:32 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I desperately want to know what color her original costume was, because reproducing it would be fun as hell.

Either white and gold, or navy blue and black.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:32 PM on May 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

From the "early pioneer" link:

Bright young women who appeared among the fen [Esperanto for "fans"]

No no no! Why do people write things like that? "Fan" is an impossible Esperanto word, and the Esperanto plural is in -j, and "fen" is just a humorous Fannish-English plural based on the man/men paradigm, and JESUS CHRIST PEOPLE STOP MAKING SHIT UP!!
posted by languagehat at 2:37 PM on May 9, 2016 [19 favorites]

She's up for a Hugo Award this year! (In the Retro-Hugos.)
posted by kyrademon at 2:48 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Implies that young women who aren't into cosplay don't have a place in fandom.

Doesn't particularly read that way to me.
posted by atoxyl at 3:17 PM on May 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Tantalizing glimpse into the hazy pre-WW2 days of SF fandom. Myrtle must have been an Iron Lady to withstand the pressures of those fraternity days. As brimming with characters as fandom has always been, to be memorable for so long is damn remarkable.
posted by Twang at 3:29 PM on May 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Doesn't particularly read that way to me.

The article even doubles down with the last line: With a single epic act of fashion, she made the world a little wider for women.

My upset is my own fault, of course, for not considering the source. It shouldn't be shocking or surprising to me, that from the point of view of Racked, women==fashion, so bringing fashion into fandom is what brought the women.
posted by sparklemotion at 4:12 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd think dressing like your favorite literary character goes even further back in time:

Then there is the tragic story of the fictional Lord Dundreary, who gave rise to the inexplicable 30-year fad for Piccadilly weepers, showing that fictional characters can inspire, and the inspiriation is sometimes nutty facial hair. On the upside, no one's cosplaying him anymore.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:21 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

On the upside, no one's cosplaying him anymore.

I get tired of Portland hipster jokes sometimes but have you been to Portland.
posted by cortex at 4:26 PM on May 9, 2016 [8 favorites]

Thanks for the post. It's great hearing about this woman, and it's not hard to read between the lines to see the misogyny that ultimately marginalized her in SF fandom.

Twang: "Tantalizing glimpse into the hazy pre-WW2 days of SF fandom."

Are there any good books or histories about those days? It'd be interesting to read more about it, hopefully from a broader perspective than simple hagiography of the great founders.
posted by crazy with stars at 7:19 PM on May 9, 2016