ABOUT WOMEN
Halloween perfect time for adults to unmask inner child

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Staff Writer

I've already made two runs to the store to replenish our supply of trick-or-treat candy, so I'm right on track for Halloween this year.

My wicked sorceress costume has been hanging in the closet for a month now, and the kids are all set, too.

After sitting out last year, the 14-year-old has decided to get back into the spirit of the season by dressing up as a fairy princess along with her best friend (courage in numbers, I guess). Meanwhile, the 8-year-old, who has been fretting over what to wear since last Halloween, has settled on a clown — not just any water-squirting, balloon-twisting clown, mind you, but an eeeee-vil clown. As if clowns aren't scary enough.

Despite enlightened parenting, the young 'uns have pretty much stuck with gender-specific roles when it comes to costumes: cheerleader, ballerina, witch, ladybug for her; cowboy, Frankenstein, Superman, alien monster for him.

I've never tried to force the issue and make them dress as gender-neutral objects like a toaster or a mailbox. To be honest, the choices are based largely on availability of materials and time.

In my own childhood, my mom whipped out show-biz quality costumes such as a black cat with a springy tail, Cleopatra, a medieval princess and Wonder Woman (OK, that last one was when I was in college).

I love that Halloween has been rediscovered by adults and is now the No. 2 holiday in America in terms of dollars spent on decorations and other trappings. Halloween is a license to uncork all manner of outrageous behavior without morning-after reprisals. The silliness is a welcome break from workplace and societal restraints and the tyranny of political correctness.

How else do you account for the surprising transformation of otherwise upstanding and serious women into frisky French maids, naughty nurses, leather-clad dominatrixes and seductive bloodsuckers? Meanwhile, button-down men unmask their alter egos by assuming the identity of pillaging pirates, superheros, gunslingers or Klingons.

Then there are the guys who feed their inner child by wearing one of those gross-out masks you see at novelty stores or posing as Freddie Krueger or that nut job in the hockey mask.

More curious are the cross-dressers. It takes a real man to dress up as a woman — even if it is just once a year. I figure anytime a guy can experience what it feels like to wrestle with pantyhose, apply eye shadow, mascara and lipstick in alluring fashion, and wedge your feet into a pair of high heels, it's one for our side.

Larger questions loom over the annual observance of the Oct. 31 holiday: Do Halloween costumes reflect our hidden longings, amplify existing aspects of our personalities, or express the flip side of how we perceive ourselves?

Don't ask me. I'm in it for the Snickers bars.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.