cosplay drama 1970s style

[davemerrill]

Stumbled upon this blog post about the 14-year old Vampirella who was taken under the wing of Forry Ackerman and had a photo magazine published about her.

http://junglefrolics.blogspot.com/2010/01/much-of-whats-written-about-heidi-saha.html

I love a good fan dramasplosion, and I love the cheesy world of the 70s fandom, but I'd never heard about this PARTICULAR instance of duelling Vampirella cosplayers. Yes, there have been others. The Heidi Saha story reminds me of whatshername who wrote/published "Tech High" and dressed as the Daicon bunny gal with her photographer dad in tow, selling pix at their AA table.

Comments

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

You know what kinda freaks me out? And maybe it's just me and nobody else will understand it.

Looking at those pics of Heidi as Vampi, I see a 14 year old girl cosplaying. I mean she LOOKS 14, or what I remember 14 being, dig?

Nowadays a 14 year old would likely look 'of legal age' and much more...slutty? sexualized? 'wanting it'? I dunno.

It's really funny, I was an avid reader of Vampirella around that time. I discovered an issue at a local drug store, soon after I found the first comic book shop to open here in town, and I was hooked on Vampi, the Marvel B&W mags (the Sci Fi one and Planet of the Apes in particular), an occasional issue of Creepy or Eerie...

Man, there was some amazing art in Vampi. I even dug the bizarre sci-fi backstory. It's a shame such things no longer exist.

[parasitegirl.livejournal.com]

I think some of what you're seeing isn't so much a large step in girls nowadays looking more legalish but overtly sexualised....but is about (and this may sound strange) large changes in make-up styles.

What now looks like a girl piled up with make-up in a manner that makes her seem more girlish because of of how almost clownish it is...that was the way fully sexually-realized adult women also PILED IT ON ...and back then that 14 year old was probably judged as more sexual and slutty than she is in now retrospect... now she's out-of-fashion and it looks childish/dated/harmless and a little nostalgic.

Then again, I wore some super-slut outfits in my youth...and don't think girls these days are any worse than I was....don't make it right but I don't feel a huge slippery slope has been skittered down.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I just don't. It may be purely subjective I guess, not to mention the different 'triggers' of male Vs. female in terms of observing sexuality or some nonsense.

And I fully accept even talking about this is squitch-worthy. :)

But having looked at various cosplay pics over the years, and seeing things in person even just walking around the mall or whatever, it really seems to me that 14 year old girls today are more...developed? Not just physically, but in carriage.

I'm really fumbling around with this because it's very clearly more 'feeling' than anything overtly definable, altho yes, dress and make-up are a factor.

If you read the link, you'll find some rather disturbing comments from the time, things that just seem impossible, because from the sound of it, she WAS seen as rather sexualized. Given sci-fi fandom of the '70s, and the rarity of females in it, and the further rarity of attractive females in it (sorry, but truth is truth), the published comments verge on porno...

*ew*

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

That is one of the big controversies of the Heidi thing is how she was seen as a overly sexualized 14 year old. It seems like it's always been an issue - remember Brooke Shields in "Pretty Baby"? "Lolita"? (even though Sue Lyon wasn't really that young at the time). I mean, there's a reason a magazine called "Barely Legal" lasted 20 years. The sexualization of minors is nothing new.