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Festivities General Why do people like to act? Halloween costumes

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Arthur Mont

Why do people like to act? Halloween costumes

Latest Post: November 2, 2011 at 8:12 PM

72 followers

It's Halloween time and people are dressing up. Their costumes are more than just costumes - they are parts they want to play.
8 year old girls seem to like playing pretend cooking with a toy oven. 8 year old boys like to shoot with toy guns. The same applies to 28 year old girls and boys.
Why is acting fun? Why do we enjoy it?

I would go even further and say that people often lead their own real life so as to play certain parts - the broken hearted, the hero, self sacrifice, etc.

People don't just like acting, they enjoy it. What is it that they enjoy? What is fun?

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John Stevenson

October 31, 2011 at 4:23 AM

21 followers

A very popular custom this year is Little red riding hood:

You have to wonder, when women dress up in that costume what are they playing? They seem to be saying, come force me now.

I understand the slutty costumes, women like to be slutty in a way that is socially acceptable. Many would want to wear such clothes daily if socially accepted. They dress up as slutty nurses, slutty cops, or many seem to have chosen the basic slutty with no other connotation.

I just think these dress-ups let them show off a part of their personality they can't otherwise show. If it's already there, it lets them accentuates it. If it's not there, maybe they hope to create it by first acting that way. That's how we learn to walk, we act like we're walking and then we can walk.

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Arthur Mont

In response to John Stevenson

November 1, 2011 at 4:18 AM

72 followers

"maybe they hope to create it by first acting that way. That's how we learn to walk, we act like we're walking and then we can walk."

I like it. We act in the hope that the acting will form a basis for a repetition which will then be real. That is, we'll act sexy and like that will become more sexy in our day to day life. (More on the force of repetition.)

Regarding your Red Riding Hood costume. I'd link it to the discussion on The impulse, never to be indulged, of complete surrender. Being RRH literary says: 'I'm without a chaperon, do with me as you please.' It's a costume, but also a fantasy. They don't really mean it. I agree that it seems a strange fantasy to cry out loud, but they're not too aware of it. They say to themselves that it's cute and sexy. Why is it sexy, that they don't think about.

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Michael Gerson

November 1, 2011 at 1:28 PM

9 followers

Why do people like acting and dressing up in strange costumes? - Maybe this gives them a chance to escape from their normally dull everyday lives. Just like carnival time.