“The cosplay community is being rocked by a horrific trend unfolding on X—but what exactly is it?”

New year, new beginnings, new excitement, and of course, new drama. Although that sounds typical, this new crazy firestorm that’s been rocking X lately is what I’d call “something else.” Today we know that, nowadays, the concept and lifestyle of hyper-sexualized living may be in a golden era—or in this case, “a dark era” for sane individuals like us. On the internet—whether it’s social media, websites like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram (especially), and of course X (formerly known as Twitter)—these platforms, along with the entire online hemisphere, are rife with sexual content. The phenomenon has gotten so out of hand that there’s now a popular term for it, which I’m sure most of you already know: “gooning.” Those who practice this insane pornography-addiction ritual are called “gooners.” Because of this wild gooning epidemic, the internet has truly lived up to its meme and that old song: “The Internet Is for Porn.”

Cosplay is a fun passion where many people dress up as characters they love—fictional ones, original ideas, and of course, all sorts of other creative concepts. In my personal opinion, cosplay is a form of artistic expression where a fictional character is brought to life by an individual simply through dressing up in a costume. While this sounds typical, it carries a very deep meaning, and when done professionally, it elevates costume-wearing to a whole new level. In other words, it’s like two souls—one from the real world and one from the fictional world—merging into one. That’s how I feel when I cosplay as my favorite characters. Of course, like all interests, cosplay has a dark side. The community is plagued by notorious issues such as racism, degradation of looks, toxic attitudes, indecent incidents, consent violations, and body-shaming. These problems run rampant throughout the cosplay community, and even as of 2026, they continue to persist. Of course, there’s another issue emerging right now—one that no one, myself included, ever expected… In fact, it’s pretty scary what’s going on…