Dress Up

Having just gone through the annual and expensive Halloween costume hunt, it is hardly a novel thought that this Halloween thing is out of hand. Yet the let's pretend occasion is fine and even fun, even if there is too much of a hey-look-at-me aspect to it and though adults won't let it be just for kids the way it should be (and once again, 12 should be the cut-off age for trick-or-treating. Please, no more teenagers that I have to give candy to because I'm afraid they'll slash my tires if I don't.) It's the costumes beyond Halloween that have me wondering.

I guess there's a self-selective aspect for those that choose professions with particular types of costumes or uniforms (for example, I wear a suit most work days, clearly a costume), but there seems to be a line between work and play somewhere beyond which people choose to dress up more for their own entertainment, often with the illusion that they do it mainly to entertain others. Sadly, others are rarely entertained.

Why do people dress up as clowns, for example? Nobody really likes clowns, and in fact I recently learned that there is a word for the apparently common fear of clowns: coulrophobia. Closely related are mimes, possibly the most despised of all "entertainers." There's nothing entertaining about these boring, self-absorbed attention "hounds" (there is another more descriptive word). And then there are the re-enactors, which add a special element of nerdom to the role-play. Whether it's Star Wars, medieval fairs, the Civil War, or whatever, you're just way too serious about that stuff. There are lots of people that like to play dress up, and most are harmless enough; it's just that these things should be done in the privacy of one's own home, and if others are involved, they should be consenting adults.

The disturbing exception may be those that cross-dress not as a lifestyle choice but as seemingly screamingly hysterical party behavior. What could be funnier than the macho guy dressed as the inevitably too-buxom woman? (Do you ever see drunken women dressing as men?) It's weird and it's dumb, but why is it so common amongst our beer-bellied brethren?