DEAR ANYONE WHO HAS EVER BEEN AFRAID OF BEING JUDGED BY THE CASHIER FOR BUYING SOMETHING:
I have been working in retail for three years and let me tell you: WE DON’T CARE!
Whether you’re a trans*boy buying tampons or you’re buying laxatives or you’re buying a thong or a package of hello kitty stickers, cashiers don’t give a shit, we’re usually too busy trying to find the damn bar code or trying to sign you up for a membership card. And honestly, half the stuff I ring up doesn’t even register in my brain. My thought process when ringing someone up is; *scan* *check screen* *scan* *check screen* oh crap did they just ask me something?
So don’t ever be afraid to buy something okay?
*kisses you and pats you on the head* Now go buy all the things!
All right real talk.
One time when I was working at GameStop I was doing a trade and someone came in with an XBOX and some games. I plugged in the XBOX to test it and when I opened the disc tray I saw that they had left their porn dvd in there. They looked so horrified and I was just like, “Here,” and gave it back before I proceeded to finish the trade, unphased, because we had a bunch of trade to process that day that was still on the back counter and the last thing I was concerned about was titty titty bang bang.
I’ve been in the cosplay community for about a year now and while the idea of cosplaying and putting costumes together is great, you know what’s not so great?
The RIDICULOUS amount of bullying.
The fact that there are cosplay groups MADE for people to trash other cosplayers/photographers.
The massive rape culture that takes place at conventions, including sexual harassment.
The racism within the community, including cultural appropriation.
The slut shaming within the community.
The fact that victims have to suffer in silence because they’re worried that police won’t take it seriously.
I keep hearing horrific story after horrific story from people talking about what was done to them - shit that is criminal. And they put up with it because they don’t think anyone can help them or that anyone will care.
I have, myself, been stalked for the past year by a “famous” cosplayer, who’s actually tried to show up at photo shoots I’m at before and sent me threats. Another cosplayer messaging photographers I work with in an effort to try to ruin my modeling career, or trying to isolate me from my friends and support systems. This stuff is FUCKED UP. It’s ABUSIVE. And the really fucked up part is how scared I’ve been to talk about it for fear that no one would take it seriously because “it’s just cosplay.”
The fact that my story IS NOT UNIQUE IS FUCKED UP.
I’m shaking as I write this because I know the second I post it that I’ll get some form of retaliation from one of my bullies, whether it be another threat or more photographers getting messages about me being an ass or more rumors being spread (for those of you who heard I’m a cr*zy d*ke - that ones kinda true. The one about me hating people with mental illnesses? Not so much.) But I have too many friends who have resigned to being miserable, having horrible anxiety, and feeling powerless in their life because they feel like they can’t say anything.
It needs to stop. And I’m done staying quiet about it.
So what I want to say to both of my bullies:
ENOUGH. Stop checking my pages, stop keeping tabs on me, stop trying to isolate me, stop trying to figure out where I’m going to be and showing up there. Just walk away. I am NOT a threat to you. I just want to dress up as fictional characters in peace for fucks sake.
To people who are suffering from cosplay bullies:
YOU ARE NOT ALONE AND IT IS TIME TO SPEAK. These people do not stop until you stand up for yourself. Forget the “forgiveness” and “turn the other cheek” bullshit. Silence is giving your tacit approval of what’s happening to you, and it’s not going to stop until you say something. Keep records and screenshots of everything that has happened, and don’t just sit and wallow. There are people that support and love you but they will never know they you need their support and love until you say something.
First of all let me just say, for like five minutes, I thought this was a joke and started texting people to see which one gave me the laugh this morning. Turns out, that no one did so I’m going to assume that this is real. Which in that case….
Alright in all seriousness.
Thank you anon for your interest in our professionally laser cut acrylic charms, specifically out new Super Mario RPG charms with colored acrylic. The one you are specifically referring to, turned out lovely with a shimmer in the pink acrylic!
It seems however that you are in a certain amount of distress over the price for this charm and felt that your particular distress was A) Indeed so overwhelming that you felt the need to be nasty and offer colorful langue to extenuate your point but B) not important enough to message us with your user name so that you could be laughed at publicly for these… messages.
I would like to start out by saying that our financial situation is none of your business nor is it any other artist’s business. I will however throw you a bone, as I can see you are CLEARLY put out by paying for ‘a piece of plastic’. After time, labor, shipping, cost of materials, listing prices and at times unexpected expenses that arise when it comes to any of our charms, after all is said and done, we make about $2 per charm for every charm sold online, roughly. Sometime it’s more closer to $3, other times it’s closer to $1.50. We do encourage people to come find us at conventions that we regularly attend, where we offer our charms for $8 (or 2 for $15, 3 for $20). This way we remove the listing prices/credit card transaction fees and can offer a much better deal! But for those who are not able to come and see us in person, we do put most of our product online.
We hope that those that are looking at our products, all of which took time, and effort to make, will understand that this is a job for us and is how we manage to pay rent and buy toilet paper. We also hope that they will be mature enough to know these prices are not meant to bleed people out of their money, but more they are taking in the consideration that these items that we sell, are made by us or we are paying someone else money to make them and send them back to us (like our charms and pencil bags). We also hope that our clientele are mature enough to realize that an artist is worth only as much as she pays herself. The artist for Toxic Star Studio (co owner and my wife) is worth about $20 an hour for her art. All of our products are prices as such. True, there are some artist that do not charge what we charge for items, but how other artist choose what their time and effort are worth, is not our business.
And thank you for your concern about our customers as well! We actually accumulated enough interest in pre-orders for the Mario charms to put them into production! It was very exciting and we were very happy to see them finished! It is very obvious that someone wants them!
One last thing. Dear dear Anon. Congrats on actually managing to get not one, BUT TWO messages through before I had a chance to turn off anon. I was unaware that it had not been disabled! I find that I have a better online experience when anon is turned off. That way cowards that like to hide behind anon tend to be a little nicer or silent all together. But I would like to give you a little piece of advice when it comes to dealing with artists that are trying to pay rent and buy food.
Try being a little nicer. If you had sent us a message and said “Hi! I wanted to buy one of your charms but I can’t justify spending $10 + shipping for something so small. Is there a way I could work something out with you? I would really appreciate it!” Then we could have worked something out. If the $8 convention price was still a little high, we could have sent you prints or buttons, all under $5. Hell, we would have thrown in extra prints or buttons of another character, as those products have cheaper supplies then then charms do. We would have worked with you to get you what you wanted and at a price you felt comfortable with and one that we wouldn’t take a loss on. We understand that some of our prices are a tad high, mostly due to the high quality of the materials that we use (premium photo paper, vinyl sleeves, professional acrylic) and the worth of our artist’s time. And also understanding that money is an issue for some people, we can offer cheaper alternatives or work out a deal.
However, you chose to be nasty and dismissive of the artist and all the work and time it took to make those products in the first place. You devalued her as a professional, devalued her as a person trying to make money enough to EAT and do something she loves, just so you could pitch a fit over a charm. These products are not mass produced. They are not made in a factory for two cents each with cheap labor. They are made by a
professional
artist that had to take time to create the art, then send it to other professionals that handle machines to cut the art, all who have to play their people and their material costs, then send it back to us, and for us to use even more time and materials to put them together and create a product that is something to be proud of. You dismissed all of this, cheapened all the hard work that goes into making these, selling these, and you did it all by hiding behind anon.
Next time, be nicer, be kinder, and don’t be a coward. The results may surprise you.
ON A SIMILAR NOTE! WE BROUGHT THE SUPER MARIO RPG CHARMS TO OUR FIRST CONVENTION! THEY DID VERY WELL! We also regret to inform everyone that we are SOLD OUT of many of our charms for the next few weeks but will be restocking them soon!
Reblogging because this is important. Do not ever, ever devalue an artist. If something is too expensive for you, say that, in a mature way, do not come at us with this “too fucking expensive” bullshit, and don’t you DARE come at us with this “I talked to other artists who offer their stuff at this price.”
Here’s a not-so-secret secret: many artists already undercharge for their work. Because they want it to sell and don’t think they can charge the true amount they should be charging for their time. It takes a long time to reach a point where we actually charge for what we’re worth, not only taking into account our creativity and time, but the fact that we need to MAKE ENOUGH TO LIVE so we can continue what we do. And comments like this are the reason why some artists are undercharging, because other people are devaluing their work. “It’s so small,” we think, “It is just plastic,” we think, and so we lower prices and end up not paying ourselves at all.
That piece of art you’re looking at? Is NOT just plastic. Plastic does NOT have the colors and art and quality that an artist puts into it. That plastic has become an item you’re interested in because someone took the time to create something with it. They took time out of their day to make these characters you love. They sketched. They colored. They did that, someone did that! And that someone deserves to be paid for their work, and if you don’t agree with it, then just move on, but do NOT be some rude little so and so and attempt to crush their creativity. An artist’s creativity is their livelihood, it’s how they keep going, it’s part of their job so don’t EVER try and belittle them.
Ever.
Sep 21
[video]
Sep 18
Sketched some potential cosplay stuff for next year for the wifey and I :)
