At Halloween, everyone
pretends to be someone else: the harmless become
scary, the
shy become
daring, and the girl next door becomes a sensational
slut. People
dress up to turn the world upside down: children to be heroes, ordinary adults to
poke fun at the famous, and singles to find love, or at least
get laid.
Thanks to Lady Gaga's year-round look, this year's costumes will be the most revealing ever. People may look gaga, but actually they're just being themselves. Because according to clinical psychotherapist Nancy Irvin, wearing a slutty constume means acknowledging that your "inner slut" wants satisfaction. Going as a French maid reveals a wish to be submissive and a catsuit manifests a desire for independence, while a vampire outfit gives away the wearer's fascination with the dark side. A gory costume lets the wearer release and act out anger otherwise kept carefully, and mercifully, repressed. In any case, costumes expose far more than just skin. The ancients knew it, too:
"In our play we reveal what kind of people we are." — Ovid, Roman poet, 45 BC–17 AD
"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."
— Plato, Greek philosopher, 427–347 BC
Review words from the gaga world of Halloween costumes on the next page.
Anne Hodgson
so tun als ob
beängstigend
schüchtern; hier: die Schüchternen
wagemutig
Schlampe
sich verkleiden
durch den Kakao ziehen
(vulg.) sich flachlegen lassen
Verkleidungen
freizügig
verrückt
anerkennen
Dienstmädchen
unterwürfig
blutrünstig
ausleben
glücklicherweise
unterdrückt
Alten, Menschen der Antike
English für Germans