Cosplayer Pudds attended AnimeFest this past weekend, though found the police largely unhelpful when she tried to lodge a police report against a stalker at the event.
The stalker was reportedly causing a lot of trouble at AnimeFest, having been a creep around various cosplayers and even attacking Pudds.
After going to the authorities as per conventional advice, Pudds says that the cops instead decided to victim blame her and call it a consequence of the way she was dressed.
“The officer told me “u pakai macam ni, jual gambar macam ni, ini adalah consequences you.” “You pun juga salah”. Tiba2 event kena stalk kena slut shame buy1free1“, she says on her Twitter.
FYI this was the outfit that i was wearing which he tegured me. I even covered it up with a jacket out of respect. Yall decide for yourselves la 😪 pic.twitter.com/3dqNry4DMU
— Pudds 👻 (@deadpudds) May 17, 2022
MalaysiaKini reports that the officer who made the remarks is since under probe, since making fun of someone you’re supposed to be listening to is traditionally frowned upon even if they’re a cosplayer at AnimeFest.
Conventions And Harassment
As Malaysia ramps back into full convention scale, unfortunately so too will the number of harassment reports at these events.
Big events will typically have a zero-tolerance approach to any kind of sexual harassment, even moreso to assault, and it’s advised to report such cases to the organizers of the event.
Meanwhile for the non-cosplayers it’s also important to remember that even though someone’s dressed like your favorite fictional character, they are still a person, and get to set the rules about what you can and can’t do around them including taking photos.
As for condescending cops, the EAIC has a misconduct form you can use to report them though you will need information such as the ID number of the officer.