Abnormal Formal:

<<back

I'm Just Me
A Guide to Staying In Costume All Year Long

by HELEN CARTER

We had to stop having Halloween outside our house. It got too scary. Let me be more specific: the parents got too scary. All of our costumes and props, makeup, fog machines and strobe lights couldn’t compete with the terror generated on a dark rainy night, by a dad barking traffic commands to his masked skittish offspring from deep within the safety of his minivan: “Run! No stop! No, run!” When it became clear that a child would get hit by a car and/or I would grow an ulcer, we stopped.

If there is one thing we learned from those years, it is this: boys between nine and twelve years of age will punch whomever is wearing the chicken costume. It’s a fact. We’ve proven it scientifically. Infants and toddlers love the chicken and would like to hug it. Four to six year olds - timid yet curious about the chicken. Around seven or eight, kids point and say “that’s not a real chicken!” but still enjoy it. But when we saw a gaggle of pre-teen boys coming down the sidewalk we had to circle the chicken - the Grim Reaper, Nixon, and Zog - like buffalo protecting their calves. Left alone, the chicken would get punched.

From this we can surmise at least two things. First, there will always be people who, when faced with something they don’t understand their own response to, will punch said thing. And second, we should not underestimate the power of costumes.

I went out to a Halloween party at a bar one year dressed as a giant slug. I was completely enshrouded by the costume, and with padding on my head even my height was a mystery. But all my sewing efforts and fully articulated ommatophores were wasted on this crowd - I spent the entire night fending off angry drunk people who insisted that I tell them whether I was a man or woman. I stayed quiet. Slugs don’t talk.

Of course, costumes aren’t just for Halloween. I first felt the power of dressing up early in high school after I’d started wearing vintage men’s jackets from thrift stores and cutting my own hair, trying to look like the cute British girls on the Madness album liner notes. Craig Ellsworth, a wiry wrestler, cornered me in the library and asked if I was “another one of those punk rockers”. He seemed really mad. I was equal parts thrilled and terrified. He saw me for who I wanted to be. Maybe he would punch me, but my costume was working.

My friend Jen is a seasoned master of personal costuming. Years ago we were shopping for fun junk at the flea market. At the time her costume was long lacy black layered dresses, black dreadlocks with interwoven beads and bones and shiny things, lots of big silver jewelry, dark eyeliner and a knobby carved walking cane. A woman approached her, face aglow, and excitedly said hi. Jen smiled and returned the greeting. The woman said “You’re from the fair!” “What?” “You’re from the fair, right? The Renaissance Faire?” “No,” Jen kept smiling, “I’m just me.” I saw a curtain of terror drop over the woman’s face. When Jen was a costumed character from a place she recognized it was okay. But Jen makes her own rules and costumes for her own game, and this woman couldn’t make the leap and play with her.

If you see your own everyday clothing as a costume it can serve you well. It can help you feel brave, feel special, remember who you are, find other people who are like you, let you pretend to be someone else, and lest we forget, it saves time by weeding out weaklings. If you’re dressing up for Halloween this year, please don’t just tear up a t-shirt and be a “punk-rocker” or smudge makeup on your cheek and be a “hobo”. Don’t be passive. Take this opportunity to choose something that has a charge, a spark, something with meaning to you. If you’re a boss, dress like a secretary. If you’ve always wanted to be a waitress, or a princess, or Guy Faulks, this is the time to give it a try. See how it feels. Think of Halloween as amateur night - maybe some day you’ll go pro. (But if you’re going to dress as a chicken, make sure Zog and Nixon have your back.) Maybe you’ll find something in dressing up that you hold onto and carry with you, whether visible or not, through the coming year. And remember, if you’re going to get hurt because you’re in costume, it’s better to be punched because of the costume you chose than to be run over because you listened when someone else yelled “run,” or worse, “stop.”