Reflections on accuracy

I recently read a discussion on FB about historical reenactment and inclusivity, and it made me really start to think on how I see it. Now this post is mainly about historical costuming, but it is basically the same within cosplay and the SW costuming clubs as well.

The main issue is: if you want to be historicallly accurate, how do you include people that are dependant on modern things (not the least medical stuff) to be able to function? In the most simple sense it's the question of wearing modern glasses to medieval garb, but what about canes, wheelchairs and for diabethics their blood glucose meters and insulin pumps. 

After having read the thread, and made a quick comment in it, I felt that I needed to take a look at myself and how do I see myself and others when it comes to accuracy, what would be my ideal and what am I willing to turn a blind eye to. 

I first need to say this. I am judgemental. I can't help finding faults when I see people's costumes. The thing is I'm not proud of it, and I do my very best to make sure that I only talk about the good things of a costume and try to encourage them rather than pointing out errors. It's just that having been in this costuming hobby for so long you do get an eye for different things, it's the same when watching a film and being able to pick out seam lines while non-costuming friends just see the general look of the costume. I also hope that my friends would tell me if I were to act like a costume nazi.

When it comes to modern things I use my glasses and I don't hide my button on the arm that check my blood sugar. I try to take the glasses off when I'm in official photos or when people really want something to look historical, but in the day to day activities I need them. Many years ago I asked about lenses, but the optometrist said that I could see better but never good with lenses. That was several years ago though, so maybe it's time to see if there are lenses that I could use. I've also resigned myself to the fact that I will probably start using an insulin pump in the coming years, the development there is going so fast and they are getting so good now that I definitely think I will have to change from insulin pens to pumps. In fact one of the reasons I use whenever my doctor asks me about switching to a pump is that I can't see how I would be able to wear a pump when I'm also wearing costumes, but that argument can't hold forever. Just the thought about someone feeling like they can't take part in a hobby because they aren't fully physically fit makes me sad.

Wearing glasses and polyester. At this event I switched to this gown because the audience wanted to see something fancy more than something accurate. I rather made small girls happy, than aspired to teach about what people actually wore.

After having mulled about these thoughts some more I think I have come up with what my ideal historical event would be. It is an event where the organizer is clear on what time period they want to portray, but where the people taking part aren't judged or stopped from taking part. I believe that if the organizers are clear on  what they want, then the participants are more likely to do their best to fulfill that idea. Nordens Minerva was a great example of that. The organizers wanted people to dress as 1762, and it was worth an evening without glasses to be in that perfect time bubble.

A bit of time travelling, but everyone taking part was in on the standards expected

I have just as much fun at the medieval events in Tuna and Leksand though, where our group has all kinds of different goals with their costumes, from old LARP-garb to handsewn replicas. To most people seeing us, we still look like we are matching each other. As much as I admire the people doing viking costuming I would prefer if there were less of them at medieval markets, but that is up to the organizers not the costumers. At the same time I know the hassle of being an organisers. At work we are working towards more of living history in our interpretations. I constantly run into the fact that for most of my co-workers, they don't see any difference between late 19th century costume and 17th century costume. We also don't have the luxury of a big wardrobe to lend out, so we are depending on people bringing their own and we are happy that people show up at all, we can't be picky. What I can do is simply try and nudge us towards something that is more historicallly accurate and less "ye olde timey-whimey". It does get lost in translation though between me as an historical costumer, and the wish to have "people from old times" around. 

Faking the 17th century. 

This feels like it was just ranting and rumbling, and I'm not sure how coherent it really is. The TLDR version is - don't let anyone put your garb down, but let's hope that more organizers aim for more historically narrow events.

LARP, 14th century, 16th century - the important thing is to have fun