Content Warning: Rape (mentioned), Molestation, Non-Consensual Actions (in general)
I'm going to start by listing off some actual issues cons have. Real issues that are not addressed by the "ban ahegao clothes" rule, and that have not been addressed for years.
Full disclaimer: I don't care whether you like ahegao clothes or not. I couldn't care less what your personal opinion on them is. What's important is that we look at this critically, and not "I personally dislike this thing, so it should never be seen here ever." It's important that we understand where this line of thinking can, will, and has gotten us.
Booths like FAKKU and OTP are not behind a cover. Minors in the dealer's room are able to walk up and search freely through booths like these (and other third-party booths that sell hentai). Every con in Michigan I have attended has a booth for hentai. It's not behind anything, and they don't check your age unless you're buying. Anyone can pick up and look at the FAKKU books, or browse the dojin available. Many NSFW manga also are not in plastic and can be flipped through without issue at third party booths.
Cosplays can be extremely fragile, and sometimes dangerous for the inexperienced. Carrying around a massive sword or having large, intricate wings on your back can cause issues. Many people strike others with these pieces, and many more (often children and the particularly abhorrent basement dwellers) grab and pull at these parts. Cosplay is not child-friendly, as a child will want to grab and pull at these parts unless they are properly supervised and held back (something I don't see often). Moreover, people are often struck by these parts by excited cosplayers rushing to get somewhere.
"Mega Milk" shirts, Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagenn, and similar highly-sexualized cosplays should not be allowed (by this logic). The point is that they are highly sexualized and, unlike the offending tacky clothing being banned, are very much sexual in nature. I see men and women being extremely provocative in them all over cons. Many have just a strap or two covering the naughty bits, way less than the full-body censors of most ahegao clothes. "But bodies aren't inherently sexual!" No, they shouldn't be, should they? That doesn't change the panties and pasties some girls (and guys) are walking around it.
Jokes like "I lewd lolis" and "VORE" signs. Those are inherently sexual (particularly the first one). Other signs with things like "Your waifu is trash" and insulting characters/certain fans are also pretty common.
13 people packing into 4-person rooms at cons. This can get people banned, you fucking troglodytes.
Unsealed paints/makeup, which is still a problem!
People who grab and touch cosplays/fursuits/people without consent are not banned from cons.
"Free Hug" signs, which have often been used to molest people (Hi!) or steal from them.
B A T H E. We do NOTHING about people who have never showered in their lives.
Con plague is a huge problem for kids and those with weak immune systems (Hi again!). Better awareness/hygiene would be super helpful! Hell, hand out sanitary napkins once in a while!
Volunteers are SORELY UNEQUIPPED for their jobs and/or often abuse their power (or are flippantly ignorant of how/when to use it).
Minors can easily buy NSFW prints. I've bought lots of NSFW stuff at cons before I was 18.
Vendors cheat their customers! Some change prices of the same item if they're talking to a different person, others purposefully overcharge if you're not paying attention.
Now that we have a better idea of issues anime cons have, let's talk about solutions. Tell me: does banning ahegao clothes fix any of these things?
It does not. So what will?
Firstly, cons have shown time and time again that they are not for children. The fact that anyone claims these places to be "family friendly" is totally beyond me. Infants and toddlers do not belong in such loud environments with such a high chance of illness/so many things they could easily be hurt by or break. My first con was 2012, when I was 15. I was sorely unprepared for it even at that age. There's a level of adult etiquette expected of you that is absolutely not adhered to by younger members (see: buying NSFW merch, being grabby, the at-the-time practice of glomping and still-currently-an-issue inappropriate touching). I got people 16+ to buy NSFW stuff for me in front of dealers, too. I have a cup that says "TENTACLE GRAPE" on it that was not supposed to be sold or SEEN by minors.
If minors cannot conduct themselves (and I use myself as an example, but I have yet to see a minor not behave like this), they should not be allowed at cons. There is no reason a 10 year old child should be watching Popotan. No reason a 5 year old should be grabbing at a cosplayer's wings. No reason a 15 year old should be buying a NSFW print of any character. No reason a 17 year old should be able to read through a hentai manga at a third party booth. These things can get a lot of people into trouble.
Would banning minors solve those issues? Absolutely! But it still doesn't fix the larger issues present.
Stolen art, for example, is painfully common. Artists sell stolen art in the artist's alley all the time, and I've been unfortunate enough to buy it before. Bootleg items that are not marked as bootlegs sold for $100 are extremely bad because not everyone has the resources/know-how to research which items are bootleg and which aren't, ESPECIALLY when they are Japanese exclusives.
How could we best fix this? Regulate the god damn dealer's room. Assign people to do the research necessary to weed out art theft and bootlegs (or at least MARK THE BOOTLEGS). Take the time to not just approve whoever buys a booth, but that they have the right to sell what they are selling. It would save congoers a lot of time/money.
"I lewd lolis," "VORE," "free hugs," and any other signs should be banned, full stop, if you want to ban ahegao. The first two are obvious-- they imply NSFW. The last one, as mentioned above, is often used to molest or steal from congoers. That has happened to me and my friends many times as minors. Beyond that, the first two signs can be triggering. On that same vein, horror (Junji Ito) clothing should also be banned for similar reasons. Ito's works are extremely triggering, as is art inspired by his work in the artists alley.
Bathing and packing 384738 people into one hotel room can be the same damn entry, honestly. You are hurting our chances of being able to do this con again next year. Cheating the hotel/purposely disregarding their rules can get you and innocent congoers banned. Ghosting cons also prevents necessary funds from reaching the con, and lessens the chance of them being able to be as big and as fun as they are that next year. Cons rely on your good conscience. Don't go if you can't afford it.
Cosplayers fight a lot, too! Furries have notoriously had paint and food smeared on them at anime/gaming cons, purposefully and on accident. People don't know how to properly seal their paint, and even if they do, still use hotel towels to get it off. You understand that this is a problem, right? Hotels/con centers can full-on ban cosplays with body paint because of this. Homestucks were nearly banned several times at my local cons.
TRAIN YOUR VOLUNTEERS! I was outed to a murrsuiter as someone who told con staff the suit was dirty (with proof of video) at 16 YEARS OLD. I was TERRIFIED I was going to be raped for the rest of that con. ANYONE who is drunk in public should be asked to return to their hotel room/leave the premises. There is no reason drunk people should be wandering around the convention center, as they both cause issues and can put themselves and others in danger. Volunteers also are notoriously unfair and biased, showing needless aggression to those who unknowingly break a rule or otherwise make an honest mistake. Every year there are complaints, and while some cons are worse than others, it's something that can eventually get a con shut down (of congoers feel like they're being treated like shit, we WON'T GO).
Sex offenders are commonplace. Orgies and hookups are commonplace. While I'm not some puritanical nut, people who go after cosplayers should be banned immediately for sexual harassment. Even volunteers. No-forgiveness sexual harassment policies are necessary, especially when a con allows minors. I don't know how many times myself or my friends have been touched inappropriately and there was NOTHING DONE ABOUT IT.
Vendors cheating their customers has been a huge issue-- from selling rotten food under the nose of the administrators to changing the price of an item depending on how gullible you think a person is; it's NOT OKAY. Vendors found to be doing this should be banned from selling at cons, full stop. There is no reason to allow this sort of trickery in the dealer's room or artists alley. The fact that it isn't addressed is just further proof of cons not really caring about it.
Ahegao shirts are tacky and cringy and stupid and whatever else you want to call them. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think they're hilarious when worn ironically, but if I see one IRL (I have seen a 15 year old with them on in the local mall) I will absolutely implode in on myself. Anime cons are, arguably, the only place those make sense to wear. They aren't explicit like many anime figures or cosplays, just faces twisted in various emotions. Not all are even sexual, in fact-- some are just meme faces made in the anime to parody ahegao.
If we are to follow the line of logic, which is Ahegao Faces --> implied NSFW --> Banned, we need to apply that logic to other things. Starting with the fact that ahegao only implies NSFW, while not showing anything specifically. Here's some other examples of things you need to remove for a "family friendly" con:
Furries (often seen as purely sexual) --> implied NSFW --> Banned
Ecchi anime/merch --> implied/SHOWN NSFW --> Banned
"Slutty" (eugh, that word) cosplays (Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagenn, etc.) --> implied NSFW --> Banned
FAKKU --> NSFW --> Banned
Dojin --> implied/actual NSFW --> Banned
Wall scrolls/prints/art depicting a character with boobie --> implied/actual NSFW --> Banned
VORE anything --> implied NSFW --> Banned
NSFW Commissions in the artists alley --> NSFW --> Banned
18+ panels --> NSFW --> Banned
The con mascot (usually an underage girl/a girl dressed overly anime-sexy) -- implied NSFW/actual NSFW --> Banned
Junji Ito/Horror --> NSFW/triggering --> Banned
At this point, if you're still failing to follow the line of thinking, it's basically this: IF YOU ARE A DEGENERATE, YOU SHOULD BE BANNED. Except, oops! Weebs and gamers are all seen as degenerates! You don't get to target one subgroup of them without backlash hitting all of us. I don't know how many lolicons get thrown under the bus only for those people throwing them to be called gross pedophiles for liking anime which, to most people, is the same thing.
It falls right back into purity, sex-negative culture, and needlessly censors things that can easily be avoided anyways. A child is not going to know what an ahegao shirt is. The only reason we see it as lewd is because we KNOW it's lewd.
We need to take on the larger problems of cons and stop pretending this faux moral crusade is going to do ANYTHING for us. I don't care how gross/tacky ahegao stuff is! It's not the problem! If we want to see any improvement at these cons, we NEED to tackle the above issues and stop beating around the bush. In the end, all it will do is make things less and less fun, prevent artists from selling, prevent booths from being allowed, and constricting the community to be a "nice, good representation" instead of a conglomerate of human beings like we actually are.
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