Cosplay vs professional presence

You can try to get them removed as copyright violations. Not sure how effective this is on Pinterest but it wouldn't hurt to try.
>https://www.pinterest.com/about/copyright/dmca-pin/

I'm a lolita, but the theory still applies. I have completely separate accounts and names for my j-fashion and real life stuff, and I only post pictures of myself on j-fashion accounts if I'm wearing a wig and heavy enough makeup that it wouldn't be easily recognizable as me unless you were looking for it.

My workplace couldn't care less though. My supervisor does art in her spare time and at least one of my coworkers is a huge comic book/videogame geek so the environment is pretty weird to begin with.

I do try to keep my cosplay life separate from my professional life, but when coworkers ask questions about what I'm doing when I get time off for a con I usually just end up telling them. I'm fortunate enough that they think that my cosplaying is really cool! They don't know the alias I use for cosplay so they can't look through all of my photos, but they always ask to see pictures from conventions and get really excited about it.

OP, I'm also a graphic designer, and I think your experience is going to vary depending on where you're looking at working. A creative firm might care less than a corporate entity, depending on who's doing the hiring. Creative fields draw lots of people with unconventional hobbies or interests, so it may be a nonissue even if they decide to Google your name.

>>9167286
OP, I know how you feel.
I can't find a job because I've done a lot of cosplay as well as nude which is all over the internet and has been spread by many.
Same thing as you, just google my name and it's there.
And I'm not even trying to do anything on a professional level.
A local Sheetz wouldn't hire me due to finding the images then ended up sharing them even more with the co-workers.
I can't even show my face in there anymore.

>>9167286
>tfw I'm paranoid as hell about this happening
I have a cosplay name, a lolita name, a name everyone who knew me before the age of 16 used, a legal name which I now use for uni and work, and a name in another language. I also have 3 separate facebook accounts and emails. It's scary tho because google seems to know theyre all me. Last week my highschool friends showed up in my recommended instagram feed, on my university legal name account. The names are not remotely similar, and I triple checked my phone numbers and emails did not overlap. What the fuck.

Rereading this I sound super paranoid, but my current profession is super concerned about normie appearances. My legal name/childhood name was also a fluke, but a lucky one since I have some shit in high school that still follows me around. My uni friends could meet my highschool friends and never know I'm the same person without photos. My family friends also know me by another name.

example
>Kaykay Hart
lolita name
>Kasteroid
cosplay name
>Karyn Tan
Childhood name
>Kimiko Tanaka
Legal/professional name
>田中君子
other language name

>>9167479
Contact google they will remove them from the search.
>Sheetz
PA or OH?
I'm training to be a nurse and I thought cosplaying would be an issue but because I work with kids they love it. I'm even helping some of our permanent residents with costumes for Halloween.

>>9167286

Wouldn't a job as a graphic designer be good to have cosplay as part of your portfolio, though? Like don't think of it as "omg everything is Spiderman, they'll think I'm obssessed", find the selling point, more like "Here are all the different materials I've worked with, if you hire me you won't need to outsource to a third party when you need to make a packaging prototype." Or something like that.

>>9167533
The problem being you wouldn't want to give them the impression that your crafts are part of the possible services they can contract you for. Some distance between work and hobby is helpful i think, saves you the effort of bridging misunderstandings.

Most of my colleagues at my workplace know I am involved in cosplay but most of them aren't interested. I guess in academic research most people just mind their own business for after work activities

>>9167559

Huh, I hadn't thought you'd want to hide a skillset from potential employers if you're trying to get hired. I mean, the way OP was writing it sounded more like they were embarassed of everything, and not something you could explain with a "yes, I can work with thermoplastics but it didn't turn out well, so I'm not confident to offer it as part of my skill set" sort of thing.

At least if you get a job offer based on your hobby's skill set you will have the chance to decide if you really want to sell your hobbies out to your employer, or say no and continue looking for a job that doesn't involve your hobbies. As opposed to not being offered any job at all.

>>9167513
Your work is super concerned your normal? What...
Sounds like you murdered someone or some shit to have that many aliases

Good thing I only did foot fetish and never showed my full face

>>9167513
This is pretty much me. I don't cosplay and I've never done anything weird or inappropriate publicly online, but I'm glad that once I was around middle school I smartened up. I'm turning 21 now, and I've been using the internet since I was probably around 10 years old. I didn't do a whole lot connected to my name that young anyway, but I used to use one screename a lot and then realized one day that some of the stuff connected to it was just a little embarrassing because I was young, so I got into the habit of regularly making up new usernames whenever I joined stuff. I think I also just liked making up new usernames, but still.

Same thing with emails - I have about 4 different ones I currently use. One is the "professional" email with my real name that I only put down for school and job and other similar serious business shit, the other one is just my regular email that I use for whatever, and then I have 2 throwaway emails (one used to be an old email that I stopped using because I didn't like the username).

At this point in my life I enjoy being as not trackable as possible. I don't want my name or my email to be searched and have every single thing I've done on the internet the past 10 years show up - even if it isn't bad, I'm sure there's still something people could judge me on.

>>9167579
I work in a professional sector that's really worried about appearances, like grooming requirements are part of your contract and handbook. They also get weird if they think you have funny hobbies. Think airline industry or legal system. I didn't kill anyone, but I got into some shit in highschool that got me expelled and almost everyone (teachers, parents, etc.) still remembers it because it was quite controversial. I'd always been called by my childhood name (i.e. Karyn) in highschool. And when I moved away to another country for university, I chose not to use it and started introducing myself by my legal name (i.e. Kimiko). My legal name is in another language also so not many people back home knew about its phonetic english pronunciation.

I have an old email address that's still linked to my online profile in a bunch of places. If you google it you'll get my cosplay pages, myspace, profile and posts in an old weeb forum. Live in fear of it every day.

>>9167590
that first part. so me. That one screenname haunts me to this very day. Having separate emails is definitely essential too.

My facebook is private but if someone adds me they can see folders I've created with pictures of my cosplays and conventions I go to. I think it helps when you work with people who are equally geeky.

I don't think it's as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. Always keep your professional and personal life separate, that's with any career. That being said, it's cosplay. Not like you have a criminal record.

I'm not in the same boat because I've always kept it separate. I use my art handle for all of my cosplays, however, my cosplays are only on certain websites and my username doesn't link back to anything (Googling my name pulls up zilch). I like to be careful, I always have been, but I don't think many employers will throw a fit over some costumes. Now, if you've got nude pictures floating around then that's another issue.

>>9167479
america fucking baffles me
>SEX SEX SEX everywhere
>someone gets naked for a living
>society deems them as a moronic sex crazed idiot
>person moves past that, tries to get a more "acceptable job"
>saw your naked picture on the internet, we're gonna have to let you go, after uh, sharing it around with the bros first.
>fired for being a "moronic sex crazed idiot" no matter your education level, intelligence or ability to do the job

one of my buds has a teacher that was openly a male stripper. in america a former sexworker would find it extremely difficult decent job, let alone a teaching one.

Honestly, I've gotten jobs through jfashion as a conversation starter. If you're a creative person, that's all it really means.

Back in the day everyone had cosplay aliases now people just use their real names
Even old school cosplayers switched to real names

Yeah, in my experience, most normies are in awe when you say you cosplay, because it's a skill they can't do themselves. Even if you aren't very good.

>>9167479
PT is that you?

>>9167687
It's like that one gifset from a show I see a lot. Some dudebros working in a hospital find out one of the female doctors used to do risque modeling or something and plastered her pictures everywhere to shame her and she told them that at least she already had all her medical schooling paid off while they'd be in debt.

Bump out of interest.

I got a job at a local costume shop via cosplay, then from there was invited to the nearest big city's largest theater to work on costumes, in wardrobe for all kinds of things, including travelling broadway, etc.

but I went into business instead

>>9169103
Why did you go into business ?

I'm just curious, being a business student myself.
At first I was afraid that some jobs are too demanding to go to cons and then I saw a senior project manager who goes to a lot of cons and has thousands of dollars worth of screen-accurate costumes and that reassured me.
Do you manage well in that regard ?

>>9167687
It depends heavily on the job. Like, I wouldn't want my embassador to be someone with nudes on the internet, for example.

>>9169125
I wanted more money. Most of the costumers I know barely make anything.

I work in a multinational company which you would probably recognize by name and I won't mention because I'm browsing 4chan at work. It's killing my spirit, I'm underpaid by a lot and the company is absolutely garbage. On the plus side, I'm salary nonexempt and they don't let me work overtime so I just work 40 hrs a week and go home. I don't have any coworkers who have a problem with my cosplay and it's my PTO to take when I want it.

>>9168505
I went to school with a stripper and she paid that shit off in cash up front. A bunch of people from the dorms would go to any burlesque shows or whatever that she did and cheer for her like a pack of proud parents cheering on their kid at their dance recital. I think every girl has to have seriously considered pole dancing or something to pay off college debts in the US, because education here is so ridiculously expensive.

>>9167599
what were you expelled for?

I keep cosplay profiles separated from my normal, but once in a while I post one or two pics of mainstream "manlier" cosplay, like from american comicbooks or "30-something white caucasian male space marine" games.

I work in software development, so it's really awkward trying to define a line to draw when the culture is so nerdy.

On one hand, a huge portion of my coworkers and friends in the industry are into similar nerdy shit (including a fair amount of actual game devs), and love hearing about my cosplay progress and/or cosplay themselves.

On the other hand, I still prefer to keep some nerdy shit under wraps. Even though it's really nothing too bad, I don't want people I casually know IRL to find my Tumblr full of silly fandom shit. But I have many online friends who I love sharing my cosplay progress with too, who only know me with those handles.

Sometimes I think about just nuking my Tumblr, and reconciling my online persona under a generic "brand", but I also think it's perfectly rational to want to keep your hobbies, personal life, and professional life separate. I just worry that someone from one "world" is going to find another account of mine and make things awkward, and my cosplay pics are a real prominent link.

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>>9169189

Definitely try to start separating your real name to your cosplay life. I think that line is necessary, but as a graphic designer, it could probably work to your advantage if your costumes were, well good. It's bound to come up if your face keeps popping up in a google search, you should try to find a way to spin it than hide it.

Most employers are just looking for some professionalism, so just make sure that if you got hired, future customers wouldn't be turned off with trying to work with your company.

>>9167286
Some 10 years ago there was a cosplay couple called Assassins Inc. They were known for their Hellsing cosplay and made for a really nice Seras/Pip couple.
They did a sexy photoshoot, nothing nude but the Seras did get down to her underwear.
Around 2008 or so they moved on professionally. Deleted their site and all their cosplay stuff, asked everyone not to repost photos, etc. I laughed and said the internet never forgets.
8 years later I Google them and I can't find their sexy photos anymore. Shows what I know.

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>>9169288
>old Hellsing fandom posts on Russian livejournal from 2006
thank you, internet

I work in the medical field and nobody has a problem with cosplay. They have a problem mostly with you having hobbies besides your job.

Back when I was an intern I used to tell everyone what project I was making and what cons I was going to. I believe I lost many opportunities because people thought I did not care about my work and focused too much on my hobby. So, nowadays, I just say things like "I'm glad I have a day off to make a sword!" or something. Nobody knows of my cosplay. I also made a page with an alias and deleted a lot of photos from facebook (especially those where I was obviously high or very drunk)

They think my main occupation in my free time is reading, and that's acceptable.

>>9169305
I'm also in the medical field (still in school) and seriously, the work-life balance mentality is so fucked up. It's like they WANT all these doctors to commit suicide, ffs.

I don't keep my hobby much of a secret, but I tend to talk about it more in terms of being a seamstress/crafter than about the actual costumes. All my cosplay stuff is through my nickname/alias, so none of it really shows up when you Google me.

>>9169317
>somebody in 1700 had my name so if you google me all you get is hits for genealogy pages
Thank fucking God.

>>9169288
>>9169291

I still have her nudes
Looks worse without the wig desu

I think I actually got my job because of cosplay. I told him during the interview I sell cosplay accessories online on the side, and he said he loves conventions like Dragon con. So I think they actually have me a little extra chance at the job.

Anyways, I'm quitting this job soon to focus solely on my business, so my cosplay and professional career are the same.

Working in the nursing third party server (aka housekeeping, catering). I am assured that everyone in the place is older than me and effectively out of touch with technology, this is a double edged sword. On one hand it makes it easy to hide my power level. However it is also impossible to find anyone who shares my interests. Also, most of the residents there are basically in a vegetative state save a couple.

And when people asks, no I do not share social media details with people in the workplace.

This will bite me in the ass when I go to a workplace with people at my age

>>9170300
Good luck managing that ! I hope that it'll work in the long term.

What was your previous job ?

>>9169305
>>9169317
I'm lucky in that I work in one of the few (only?) countries with a strong union who help with contractual restrictions on working hours and an actual public awareness of work-life balance (generally the public here don't like the idea of people making life-affecting medical decisions after 24hrs of call). I don't think I've had anyone comment on my hobbies negatively before, most people have a 'thing' beside work - one of my colleagues is a boxer and takes leave for big fights where she's the personal doctor for one of the pro boxers, one does long-distance multisport events, etc.

>>9171115
Where do you live ?

>>9171161
I'd rather not say specifics, but it's not in the northern hemisphere so that really only gives you a few options.

I work in finance and don't have any public presence online whatsoever. I don't even use Facebook except for sharing news occasionally.

I'm an extremely private person and I don't want to include my real name into anything cosplay-related because I've experienced stalkers and other sick people trying to doxx me and actually find out my phone number, address etc. Not only that, but I just don't want my employers to google my name and find out I'm dressing up as anime characters and I should be able to have a private life. I'm very strict about it and it makes me so furious how people can't respect that. Cosplay competitions that don't allow nicknames and Facebook communities that require your real name for example.

I have a rare foreign surname too so it's not hard to find out my personal information if you get a hold of it, and I fucking hate it when people take it lightly and don't understand that I don't want my real name to show on anything cosplay related. I've had photographers credit the costume to me with my real name instead of my cosplay name despite explicitly telling them to use the latter. Seriously, what's so hard to respect a simple wish like that?

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>>9169189
Damn, you must be such a perfect, flawless human being who has done absolutely nothing wrong in your life since you think skimpy cosplay pics or nudes means someone deserves to have their career opportunities ruined. We are truly blessed to have such a saint in our presence.

In all seriousness, you sound quite triggered.

>>9174175
If you knew how to read, you'd know I was attacking the whore that thinks it's society's fault for people being whores. Which is completely and utterly false. We can sit here all day arguing why someone should deserve to have their career opportunities hampered for plastering their meat flaps on the internet for attention, but really what will that achieve?

>>9167286
I've tried keeping them separate for the most part, but eventually my workplace found out and they've been pretty awesome about it. They see me at times handsewing on my break, or there's a coffee shop that I go to for homework and the owner's always super nice to us and following our cosprojects.

For the most part, I've kept them separate to reflect that I have separate portfolios of work. I have my animu art portfolios that most art teachers would hate, an actual graphic/illustration one for jobs with my actual name, and my cosplay ones. There's some industry jobs where I've gotten props for having a cosplay background, it's in more artsy, gaming, or tech based communities.

Years back, I was involved with a pretty gnarly person who stirred drama at cons who tried to bring me down. So, I always made it a point to ensure that someone wouldn't find a cosplay.com dramu thread or something and recognize my name. Thankfully I don't really have those kinds of problems, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious since not everyone is accepting of cons as a normal thing.

>>9174798
I did see that, I just didn't bother addressing it because that's not even what they were saying and I didn't feel like breaking down what they already said further. They were simply saying there's a double standard in the USA where society is ridiculously sex crazed and ridiculously prudish at the same time. Which is simply a fact. You're calling them a whore for pointing out a fact that you lack the reading comprehension to understand they were getting at.

And no, they don't deserve it anymore than you do. You're simply being a judgemental twat. Nudes and skimpy cosplay being online doesn't hurt anyone and not to mention, many women have private nudes leaked by jilted ex husbands/trusted boyfriends or even completely Photoshopped. So, your mentality of "nudes on Google should mean career ruined" effects women who may have done absolutely nothing to end up in that situation. This mentality within society means girls who have been the victims of malicious photoshop wizards have had their lives severely damaged, even ruined, all because people like you can't get over their silly hatred of female sexuality. They are no less people than you. Get over yourself, develop some empathy, and calm down.

>inb4 go back to tumblr
>inb4 femenazi

And then there is Summer Knight cosplay

https://youtu.be/lFnWiPo5Qlo

>>9167286
WTF if you're in a n artistic profession why the fuck would costuming hurt your career? You do realise that people outside of anime conventions do this shit? Like stage/theatre costumers and fashion design students? Stop acting like your cosplay is some super unusual secret shame when fucking everybody dresses up for Halloween, only cosplay is higher quality and a better demonstration of skill/artistic flair than the shit everyone in your office probably gets drunk in once a year.

>>9175037
Holy shit I just looked this girl up and ???? She only has about 700 likes literally what is this who does she think she is

OP here, thanks for the great discussion. I'm not interested in the slut shaming vs empowerment vs culture wars vs whatever- I have my own opinions on that and /cgl/ really doesn't care. What I'm wondering is how to best split my audience without alienating what few followers I have. I'm thinking that I'll need to rename my tumblr and deviantart galleries (who even uses dA anymore?) and take the cosplay pics down from both of those.

>>9175060
I wouldn't worry about it as much if it weren't the only thing that comes up when you google me. I recently met a client who said "I googled you so I'd know what you looked like when I met you and saw all your costumes." I brushed it off with "Oh haha, those are about five years old, but I love to make things." He seemed more curious than anything, but until I can get my name out there enough to get my artwork into the image search rankings, that's all you get. It's a little embarrassing when most of those pics are five or six years and twenty pounds ago. I've let myself go.

>Cosplay got me my current job (dance seamstress)
>My boss has done cosplay and steampunk commissions before
>Was originally a little terrified of showing just how high my power level was to my boss
>Turns out she's been watching anime so goddamn long she still calls it "Japanamation"
>She almost named her cat "Sutsuwari" like the Ghibli soot sprites

I try to keep that shit vaguely separate because I'm friends with family members on FB, but my niece and younger nephew cosplay and my sister posts pictures of them so desu it's kind of a lost cause at this point.

>mfw my niece cosplayed Asami Sato and I cosplay Tarrlok
>mfw Auntie Tarrlok has no face

kind of in the same vein, but I used to be semi-well known in certain circles and now I work for a large company that sends me to a few of the bigger cons. I'm constantly paranoid someone I had beef with will complain about me to my job for whatever reason. my co workers are a non issue though. everyone I work with knows that i cosplay but whenever they ask for a photo i find a way to change the subject until they forget.