After dressing up as the Joker, New York-based cosplayer Veronica Rae has been subject to unending harassment from incels, gamers, and other trolls who dubbed her version of the infamous D.C. character “disrespectful and offensive” and accused her of “appropriating” Joker culture, as if that’s a real thing.
Rae, who has more than 28,000 followers, posted the photos of her in her handmade Joker costume that she took in the Bronx on Facebook on Wednesday, writing, “I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a comedy…I whipped up a female Joker in about 2 days just so I could shoot on the iconic stairs!”
While the post did get more than 7,000 likes and 19,000 shares, it also received hundreds of comments from online trolls attacking her and using incredibly offensive language to do so.
“It’s extremely disrespectful and offensive, who lets femoids do this,” one commenter wrote. “Everyone who defends this woman is a coomer.”
“Femoid” is an incel term for women who are viewed only as sexual objects, while “coomer” is someone who’s addicted to masturbation.
“This is oppressive to gamers,” another person said.
Another added, “The Joker could not have been a woman.”
In response, Rae decided to clap back in the best possible way: she posted a photo of herself dressed up as Jar Jar Binks and captioned the photo, “I hear you all loud and clear. Is this better for you?”
This photo drew overwhelming positivity from commenters, who applauded Rae for maintaining her sense of humor.
Still, she admits that she was shocked that her Joker photoshoot drew such ire, telling the Daily Dot, “I thought it would just be a ‘normal day in the office’ of two thousand reactions and that’s it. But then again, we live in a world where primarily women, (and men) are judged on their every move. So it definitely comes with the sexy and controversial territory.”
However, she insists that she loves cosplay and she’s not bothered by the trolls, adding, “They don’t realize that the hate makes me grow stronger, and my content is getting noticed by inspiring and gracious people in this community. People know that clown culture isn’t a thing. I think it was absolutely ABSURD that people were considering this to be a race issue. I’m so sorry but clown lives matter isn’t a movement. And as a mixed Asian-American woman, that bothered me the most.”