One of the things we have been doing since the very inception of the Attire language, is dressing to transform ourselves into something other than our normative reality. We have used this subset of Attire to inform and effect our religions, our psychology, our sexuality, our politics, and our very world view. Dressing up, costuming ourselves, making believe, is an integral part of what Attire does. It's an essential, in fact, part of how this whole complex thing works.
When we tog ourselves up to go out into the world, we don an armor of sorts that is partly who we are, and partly what we wish to present. So too is it true for dress up clothes. Clothes we put on for Halloween or some other costume focused event, are only a partial reflection of our surface selves. What they are really, is a much more significant reflection of our personal inner landscape, and thought process. Especially, those parts of ourselves we do not allow to surface often, if ever.
With that in mind, its actually worthwhile to look at what we have chosen to wear, when we are deliberately wearing apparel that is not our daily clothing.
First, and most importantly, when we choose to wear a costume of some sort, we leave aside temporarily, the restrictions, and social conventions that we live with on a daily basis. This allows us far greater room for expression; and things we normally hide from view are not only acceptable, but celebrated. So, a fellow who in the real world wouldn't dream of showing up at work dressed in women's clothes, can feel entirely free to be as outrageously drag queeny as he wishes. Or a woman who couldn't think of getting her inner warrior on, can take up arms and be a sword wielding heroine for a while, with not only impunity, but praise. Fancy dress gives us access to our darker selves, our sillier side, our more perverse aspects, and above all, to the creative part of us that is in everyone.
The thing that, for me, becomes significant, is that we can, and do see the merits of these things on such occasions, but we otherwise shut them away. We do understand on some visceral level that all these things have their laudability. And yet, our societal constraints make us shy away from our understanding of them on an everyday level. Why? What is it about our attachment to fantasy that makes it an unacceptable thing in real world existence? Why is it that the things we yearn to sometimes become, are often not the things that fit into the confines of the society in which we live?
The answer is in two parts, I believe. The first relates to our innate desire to categorize for understanding, all the things, and people around us. When we cannot understand, we respond with apprehension, or even anger. So, apparel that is not within the range we can slot into readily available spots in our minds, makes us deeply uncomfortable. I have experienced this reaction many times within the construct of this blog, whenever I post something that is visually challenging.
The other part of the answer to that is this. We cannot, as yet, encompass the notion of fantasy and reality coexisting outside of the most rarefied of situations. We have not yet come to understand, that the fantasy realm in which we all partly live, is also a part of the world we inhabit in real time. Once we come to comprehend that fantasy, and real life existence, have no firm boundaries between them, we will begin to understand that this desire we have to transform outside of normalcy, is in fact, utterly normal.
Once we feel at peace with that concept, our ability to access and use effectively the Attire language will get a huge boot up. We might no longer feel that this, or that sort of thing is out of bounds for someone, or for ourselves. Giving all of us greater freedom to be who we essentially are can only be a healthy thing. Living our own truth is a place of personal strength.
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