Interview With Clowny Princess

Clowny Princess: Smart, Funny & Beautiful with a Harley Quinn Fixation

by Cary

How did you get interested in cosplay?

Obviously, as a little girl I loved playing dress-ups and I just don't think I've ever grown out of that - one of the main appeals in becoming a stripper and burlesque performer was the ability to dress in glorious and glamorous costumes and 'put on' other identities. I've also always loved costume parties and I even consider my day-to-day fashion style - 40s to 50s vintage - a type of costuming. Assembling and coordinating a dozen little details to create one big impact of a whole.

Being a geek, the beautiful and dazzling costumes of the female characters in various cartoons and comics have also always appealed. I'm a real girly-girl and I just love form-fitting outfits, sparkles, lots of cleavage, ridiculous high-heels but also - the idea of becoming those characters with their powers and abilities and dramatic lives was a dominant feature of my childhood fantasy world.

But cosplay itself? I didn't know such a thing existed, for the longest time. I was aware that lots of geek fans dressed up as Star Wars characters, but it seemed they were all guys and it only happened in the sci-fi world.

Ever since I became a Harley Quinn fan thirteen years ago, I have wanted to dress up as her. More than any other character I have loved, ever, I wanted to become a living personification of Harley Quinn. I knew that a lot of folks had but I didn't understand this as 'cosplay' until the last couple of years when I became more and more exposed to the culture of cosplay and that led me to determine for myself to create as perfect and exact a portrayal of Harley Quinn as I could - which further led me to wanting to portray her in different ways, different outfits and different styles and actually create a series of photographic stories I could share online with other fans.

Since this also led me to start attending conventions, I took interest in what other fans were doing with their creativity and found myself more and more impressed with the dazzling talent and ability to be found in the cosplay world.

Cosplay to me is an exercise both in narcissism and conscious, consensual objectification. The construction of a perfectly replicated image of a fictional character for both one's own satisfaction and that of one's audience. The living out of a fantasy - dressing up for grownups - in which the cosplayer's gratification is dependent as much on audience delight as it is on creating the most precise and accurate portrayal. The cosplayer at once lives out their own fantasy and brings to life the fantasy of others.

This is both the passion and eroticism of cosplay for me and I find it immensely gratifying and pleasurable. It's a hobby of perfectionism and fantasy-realization.

Who is your favorite character to dress as?

Harley Quinn. In all honesty, she is really the only character I cosplay or want to cosplay as. When I am Harley, in a way I feel more like myself, like dressing as her allows more of me to be free and out there.

I love how I feel in her costume, not just like more of myself but an erotic thrill out of personifying a character I identify so deeply with.

Likewise, I love the reaction she gets when I go out to cons and such, how strongly people are drawn to her and love and appreciate the effort I have put in to make her as real as can be.

You also do some pin up modeling, how do the two genres compare?

It's about the presentation of fantasy, the crafting of a perfect recreation of an ideal or atmosphere or a particular look and concept. Capturing a split-second of pure fantasy perfection, a moment a dream comes true. And then, seeing yourself in that dream. Going, oh wow - look - right then, I was the creature I used to fantasize I could be! Both realms are highly narcissistic (nothing wrong with that!) and invite voyeurism too (also nothing wrong with that!).

Do you find that these types of modeling cross over with the Fetish/BDSM scene?

On a superficial level, yes, often. But it seems to be more in an aesthetic sense than genuinely a kinky one. Pin-up models in particular seem to often incorporate recognizably kinky elements into their work, but are not practitioners in real life. Likewise with cosplay models. They enjoy the aesthetics of fetish and BDSM but aren't actually into it, or only into mild play. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Each to their own! Plus I'm sure the kinksters who enjoy their work don't mind because their tastes are still satisfied on a visual level which they can take to the cerebral. And that's not to say those cosplayers and pin-up models won't become truly kinky at a later stage of their life, either - we are all constantly evolving.

However, a fetishist who chooses to cosplay or do pinup modelling is more likely to have a kinky connection to these things on an intrinsic level. For me, my love of vintage lingerie is a kink - I am more likely to wear vintage girdles and bullet bras with seamed stockings to a fetish/BDSM club than a latex bodysuit and hood. That is my expression of my personal kink nature and is entwined with my identity as a submissive too, just as latex bodysuits are for other kinksters.

On the same level, cosplaying for me is an expression of my kinky nature too - possibly this is why I really only cosplay one character, the charater with whom I most deeply identify and who shares a submissive Daddy's girl identity with me.

Do you enjoy fetishism/BDSM play in your personal life, and if so what are you into?

Hehehe, I do!

I'm a rigid submissive who is pretty much just a Daddy's girl. Not a slave, not a pony, though every now and then a little bit of puppy comes out in me - I'm a little girl, through and through. I'm into pretty hardcore edge play - mind games especially do it for me, but I also love knife and blood play, breath play, face-slapping and punching, hair-pulling, biting and discipline, boot-polishing, body worship and Daddy/girl play. I'm not into the common trappings of the BDSM world - the rituals of negotiation, kneeling, submitting, being bound in leather handcuffs and hit with floggers has little appeal to me because I personally find it contrived, though of course I defend it absolutely for those who really enjoy it. I think my personal dislike of it may have to do with being a Daddy's girl and I see those rituals and trappings as belonging more to the Master-Mistress/slave dynamic. I prefer organic play - I want to be restrained with a tie or a scarf, threatened with a kitchen knife, slapped with a hand or a hairbrush. I don't want things to be too over-negotiated and for this reason I have to be careful who I play with, to ensure trust is present. I adhere to RACK rather than SSAC.

I work in the sex industry doing erotic submission and Domination - the ONLY times you will find me being Dominant!! I trained at a professional Dungeon in Dominatrixing but quickly realized the traditional Domme style was not really my cup of tea so I've blended that with a more erotic style that's very popular amongst newbies and soft-kinksters.

I have been wanting to take cosplay and geekery into a professional context for ages by offering services as various characters like Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, etc... the only character I wouldn't offer would be Harley Quinn as she's way too personal to me.

Do you think pinup and fetish are becoming part of the mainstream culture?

Again, on a very superficial level - largely it's about the aesthetic appeal and the average joe would head for the hills if he knew what we all got up to! ;) I find it pretty amusing that stuff I used to get teased for in school is now the reason old school-mates and mainstream folk like them now think I'm very exciting and fabulous for.

STILL, the popularizing of it in mainstream culture does mean that those who would not otherwise be exposed to it get the opportunity and perhaps discover new things about themselves they then pursue, so it's all good!

Are there any other creative mediums you work in?

I am a burlesque performer and stripper, both of which require creativity and coordination in various levels (I mix my own music, even adding sound-effects and such), I'm also a trapeze-artist-in-training and a clown-in-training. I love traditional circus arts in general and am always looking to expand my repertoire. I have done some figure modeling I also write a vast amount of fan fiction (some of it extremely kinky smut!) and run a few highly-geeky websites about Harley Quinn and her paramour, the Joker, all of which can be found through this portal - http://www.harlequinnade.com . I also dance - I trained ballet and bellydance for years and also pole dancing - I have a pole in my living room! I am also an aspiring Marilyn Monroe impersonator - I'm still putting everything together but not quite ready to go yet - for which I recreate her mannerisms and voice and look, I'll be doing live vocals so I get singing training as well.

Basically, anyway in which I can be crafty, I go for it.

What kind of music do you like?

I adore and live by the music of Tom Waits. He's been the soundtrack to my life since I was about ten years old.

Other than that, I have pretty diverse taste in music. I also love Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Peaches, Princess Superstar, Mika, Lady GaGa, Lil' Kim, Jaques Brel, Blondie, the Divinyls, Prince, the Cure, Concrete Blonde, Bonnie Tyler, Lesley Gore, Cole Porter... many, many more.

What do you like to do for fun?

hee hee! I love to cosplay, or work on cosplay, be photographed, work on my burlesque shows, whether choreographing, mixing music, costuming or conceiving, train on the trapeze or dance, hang out with my friends somewhere we can be fabulous or attend wonderful local community events of the creative and/or kinky bent, go shopping (total shopaholic!), make money (loooove filthy lucre!), watch old Hollywood musicals, put together amazing outfits and looks and just generally do all the things that keep me sane and healthy.

See more of Clowny Princess:

http://www.harlequinnade.com

http://www.harlequinnade.com - information, trivia, media, meta and fan works, dedicated to the Joker and Harley Quinn

o^(--)^o