Spring Break
Halloween by daylight: Dude, that's like, pretty queer
Thomas Dieter
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Forum
On Sunday, I believe we had a shared experience, OSU.
We woke up groggy - likely still in our Halloween outfits - looked at our wall clocks and groaned at the hour. We stretched out of wherever it was we fell asleep the night before (hopefully, a bed) and tried to remember how we got there.
We finally looked at our cell phones, and the GPS magic reminded us that it was, in fact, daylight savings day. Suddenly, there was an additional hour in our lives, and we simultaneously shed a tear of joy.
It was breathtaking.
Halloween and daylight savings go together like Harold and Maude, subs and doms. It just makes sense. (Now, if we could convince Saturday to host Halloween every year, we just might be on to something.)
For us queers, Halloween has a bit of an ironic twist, does it not? After all, many of us are well acquainted with dressing up like other people and things - let's call it "costumification" (because you can't be said to have a point unless "-ification" appears after a word somewhere). It all sounds a bit familiar to me.
Yes, I'm talking about drag. We're still a bit tired. I'll explain.
My friend Liz was some sort of jellyfish, and Adam was David Bowie. Becky was the Hamburglar and moved like a crook. I know nothing of the aquatic sciences, but let's pretend that jellyfish are sexless and exist as a by-product of the mucus produced from the mixture of seaweed and sea foam, okay?
It seems to me that Halloween, for one day a year, permits a certain freedom for gender exploration. Could it be that Liz, at times, feels like a jellyfish, a translucent ball floating idly in an ocean, finding solidarity only in Halloween? Does Becky secretly wish to burgle some ham? And Adam's costume needs no explanation at all.
I must admit, then, to some confusion, OSU. How is it that in some contexts we understand and celebrate the blurring of social norms and values (like those involving gender) and in other situations strictly uphold them?
We woke up groggy - likely still in our Halloween outfits - looked at our wall clocks and groaned at the hour. We stretched out of wherever it was we fell asleep the night before (hopefully, a bed) and tried to remember how we got there.
We finally looked at our cell phones, and the GPS magic reminded us that it was, in fact, daylight savings day. Suddenly, there was an additional hour in our lives, and we simultaneously shed a tear of joy.
It was breathtaking.
Halloween and daylight savings go together like Harold and Maude, subs and doms. It just makes sense. (Now, if we could convince Saturday to host Halloween every year, we just might be on to something.)
For us queers, Halloween has a bit of an ironic twist, does it not? After all, many of us are well acquainted with dressing up like other people and things - let's call it "costumification" (because you can't be said to have a point unless "-ification" appears after a word somewhere). It all sounds a bit familiar to me.
Yes, I'm talking about drag. We're still a bit tired. I'll explain.
My friend Liz was some sort of jellyfish, and Adam was David Bowie. Becky was the Hamburglar and moved like a crook. I know nothing of the aquatic sciences, but let's pretend that jellyfish are sexless and exist as a by-product of the mucus produced from the mixture of seaweed and sea foam, okay?
It seems to me that Halloween, for one day a year, permits a certain freedom for gender exploration. Could it be that Liz, at times, feels like a jellyfish, a translucent ball floating idly in an ocean, finding solidarity only in Halloween? Does Becky secretly wish to burgle some ham? And Adam's costume needs no explanation at all.
I must admit, then, to some confusion, OSU. How is it that in some contexts we understand and celebrate the blurring of social norms and values (like those involving gender) and in other situations strictly uphold them?
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