Chance encounter with crossplayer at fan event prompts poll with near-unanimous response.

Crossplay, in which costumers dress as characters of the opposite sex, is a pretty big subset of the cosplay community. But even though crossplay has become a big enough part of the cosplay community that a guy dressed as a woman won’t really cause a scene at an anime event in Japan, a recent Internet poll highlights that that may not translate into across-the-board acceptance of crossplayers in all facilities.

Japanese Twitter user, and crossplayer, @syouma_cos recently sent out the following tweet.

https://twitter.com/syouma_cos/status/896534738520821760

“At the last event I went to, I saw a man crossplaying as a female character come out of the women’s restroom, and told him that using the women’s room wasn’t the right thing to do. ‘Right now I’m dressed like a girl, so it’s totally natural for me to use the women’s room,’ he replied. I just can’t understand that way of thinking.”

@syouma_cos followed this up with a poll, asking “Do you think it’s acceptable for men dressed as women to use women-only facilities and amenities?”

https://twitter.com/syouma_cos/status/896535613884710912

22,762 votes were cast, and the overwhelming majority, 93 percent, said they do not think it’s acceptable. Rationales included:

“Personally I don’t think it’s right, because even if he’s dressed as a woman, sexually he’s a man.”

“That’d be a crime. Please call the police.”

“Dressing as a woman is a matter of personal preference, but insisting on using the women’s restroom too? I have to say I think that’s illogical.”

“I’m surprised even [a few] percent of people think it’d be OK.”

“Not every man who dresses as a woman is a homosexual, so it’s possible that a cross-dressing man who goes into the women’s restroom or bathing area could still see women as objects of sexual desire, so it shouldn’t be permitted.

“The guy [@syouma_cos] saw said “I’m dressed as a woman,” not that he thinks of himself as a woman, so that should settle it.”

“If people do things like that, more events are going to just ban crossplaying.”

The last comment brings to mind a controversy from last year when the inaugural Tokyo Comic-Con initially had a policy in place that banned men from dressing as women at the event. Following a backlash, the organizers removed the restriction, but still required cosplayers to use the changing areas and restrooms that corresponded with their physical sex.

Despite the poll’s incredibly lopsided results, some online commenters did express a measure of appreciation for the complexities of the matter being discussed.

“My friend regularly dresses as a woman, but from his build and height, it’s obvious that he’s physically male. But mentally, my friend is a woman, so I can’t make a blanket statement about whether or not I think crossplayers using women’s facilities is acceptable or not,. If it were entirely allowed, though, I think some people would abuse the option with harmful intentions. It’s a difficult question.”

“When I see a guy who’s dressed as a woman come into the men’s bathroom, I think it’d be nice to have a world tolerant enough that that person, if mentally a woman, could use the women’s restroom. There are people in that sort of gender situation.”

Such opinions, though, were very much in the minority in the poll.

Source: Twitter/@syouma_cos via Jin
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