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Halloween Costumes & Ordinary Life
This past weekend, I had the pleasure/misfortune of attending a Halloween party consisting almost entirely of people I didn’t know. I’ve never been much for parties and am not extraordinarily out-going socially, so I wasn’t having an especially good time. But standing there by the dessert table (I ate a cupcake), looking out at the teeming throngs of people wearing their Halloween costumes and acting the part, something really slid into place for me inside my head.
It was this weird flash of insight, a glimpse into the way we all are… I saw the people there not as drunk or even in costume. I saw them as completely ordinary. What I mean by that is that we are always in costume. Halloween is no different.
Like most people, I used to think that Halloween was special because it was this one day out of the year where we get to dress up in costumes and pretend we are somebody else. But I realized last night, standing there eating my cupcake that Halloween isn’t special because it’s different. It’s special because we get to make plain the way things always are and make a mockery of how stodgy and constricting the roles we play in regular life can become.
In other words, costumes allow us to construct and modulate our identities. Not just how other people see us, but how we see ourselves. How many times have you put on a costume, and suddenly felt different? The costume may simply be a nice shirt or a pair of pants. These things enable us to access parts of ourselves that are normally dormant or which we may not typically feel comfortable or confident enough to express.
But costumes aren’t a Halloween-only thing. They are a constant in our lives. We put on masks with the people we interact with socially - our persona. We might act and talk differently around our friends (or certain friends) than with our family or our significant others. Hell, we even put masks on ourselves when we maintain an internal monologue, splitting ourselves into fragments, berating ourselves for our failures (who is doing the talking and who is doing the listening inside your head at any given moment?)
The process of choosing these costumes in real life is largely the same as it is on Halloween as well: will you go as a “classic” Halloween type character (zombie, cowboy, soldier, witch)? Or will you go as some post-modern hybrid of the traditional forms? Will you reference particular pop culture figures, movies, trends or will you try to do something totally original?
It might even be fun when you’re done dressing up for Halloween to take some time and look around you. See what type of character you’ve decided to become in regular life. Are you posing as a twenty-something spiritual slacker, a stay-at-home mom, a college student with strong ideals? What kind of props and clothing and attitude do you use to convince yourself and others that this isn’t just a costume, but is actually you? How comfortable would you feel suddenly changing your ordinary “costume” into some other type of thing entirely? Would the people around you freak out because their costumes are dependent on your costumes?
Hopefully this doesn’t take the wind out of anyone’s sails for celebrating Halloween tonight. For me, it added an extra dimension, one which I’m still picking up the pieces of days later. Have fun re-engineering yourself! Happy Halloween!
- The French seem to not get it
- The Essence of Consumerism, Part I
- Some Halloween inspired articles…
- The True Meaning of Halloween
- Movies watch us
- Prev: It’s All Happening!
- Next: Technocracy & Science Fiction
October 31st, 2006 at 4:26 pm
We are all wearing uniforms! Frank Zappa
October 31st, 2006 at 4:29 pm
I think today is all about reminding us that we do indeed always wear a costume… and its up to us to “fill” that costume with the energy-exuding self we choose to be during every moment.
I was just now painting my face and excited to go out in public so I could somehow “become” this different person (via my cool design). But then it occured to me — how is this face-paint I wear today different from my costume (clothes, human suit, etc) on any other day? Happy halloween indeed.
October 31st, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Nice post!
A woman I once knew explained that fashion (which includes costuming) is a kind of magic — a deliberate manipulation of others’ perception so as to create in their minds an image of ourselves as we would like to be seen. It also affects our self-perception, and the costume helps us “get in character.”
I used to be extremely anti-fashion, thinking it was nothing but foolish vanity and pretense. But after listening to my friend, I’ve come to see it as yet another tool at our disposal. (I’m still not into expensive fashion myself, but now that’s just me expressing my simplicity.)
October 31st, 2006 at 10:22 pm
If you haven’t read any Erving Goffmann - you should. His “The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life” is classic. Read his ideas about “impression management.” It definitely relates to the I/You structure you discussed earlier.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:52 pm
[…] On a final and more serious note, I recommend everyone check out this excellent post by Tim Boucher of Pop Occulture, about halloween costumes and the personas we wear like costumes, all the time. I think reflecting on the roles we play in ordinary life, and the fact that they are roles, is more than just an intellectual exercise. The realization, if you take it far enough, can lead you into a clearer awareness of yourself, and of the nature of role playing in everyday life, and this can, if you want it to, free you up to be much more playful with the roles you play, to ‘try on’ different personas and possibly discover new facets to yourself that maybe you didn’t allow yourself to acknowledge as ‘you’ before, because you were stuck within the boundaries of a particular, narrow sense of identity. Maybe that sort of thing isn’t your cup of tea, but I think everyone can benefit from any increase in self-awareness, and awareness that our limitations are usually, if not always, self-imposed. Because that means they can be self-unimposed. Just a thought. […]
November 1st, 2006 at 6:22 pm
ha! try being a highschool kid!
i’ve realized, through my many years of schoolin’, that it’s no use lookin for the “real” people, because none of us are really “real.” Most of the “ghetto” kid have cell-phones and where expensive clothes. the “punks” or “anarchists”, or wtf people call um, watch MTV and are just like everyone else. It’s like the Breakfast Club, (a movie all of you who remember when it was new probobly hate)… they all were a costume (brain, jock, etc.) but are all the same underneath. It’s just like that. Only i doubt it ends in highschool. Our whole society puts arbitratry labels on people, and those who don’t like it are putting themselves in the little box for people who don’t like getting put in little boxes…. so it’s really loose-loose. That’s why when i meet someone, i try my best not to label them at all. they aren’t black or white, liberal or conservitive, those are just invented polarities. They’re just people, it dosn’t matter what costume they were to hide it.
November 3rd, 2006 at 2:43 am
So true, Michael.
November 3rd, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Dead on. I think it is part an understanding of this principle that allows people in a lot tribes to become gods by putting on certain costumes (Of course, this transformation also requires a nearness to the divine in order to have a sense of what it is to be a god).
I also ask why our society wont let us get away with certain roles. In many ways I feel more affinity for the wandering poet from beyond the grave that I played on haloween than for my normal persona, but if I tried to insist that I really am this ghost, Id be laughed out of town even by my closest friends (who are willing to put up with a lot of wierd shit from me).
June 19th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
[…] But speaking of me and crazy, there’s quite a bit about this sort of thing in my previously mentioned book, which is to be released any week now. Tim Boucher has also written some kickass stuff about this subject from a number of angles. Like check this out: “In other words, costumes allow us to construct and modulate our identities. Not just how other people see us, but how we see ourselves. How many times have you put on a costume, and suddenly felt different? The costume may simply be a nice shirt or a pair of pants. These things enable us to access parts of ourselves that are normally dormant or which we may not typically feel comfortable or confident enough to express.” […]