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Introduction to Disguise........................................................................4-5 Childhood & Disguise.............................................................................6-7 Teenagers & Disguise.............................................................................8-11 Adults & Disguise.................................................................................12-15 Disguise in Non Modern Societies........................................................16 Disguise & Nature......................................................................................17 Bibliography & Other Resources.....................................................18-19
History of Diguise: A glimpse. The Oxford English Dictionary defines disguise as “to give (someone or oneself ) a different appearance in order to conceal one’s identity”, and costume as “a set of clothes in a style typical of a particular country or historical period.” Disguise has been present throughout history in different ways and forms. For example, the Greek civilization is one of the most ancient one to wear costumes as disguise, since they are the creators of theatre as we know it today.
The costumes they used included platform shoes and masks, which were used to communicate expressions. We have earned the practice of theatre and acting from the Greeks, and this discipline has evolved, leading to other art forms, such as cinema and television.
Disguise as a Practice. The practice of disguise may involve different types of activities and costumes. We can find masquerades, where historical costumes are worn, and tribal disguise, practiced mostly by ancient civilizations in rituals, where not only garments are used but also camouflage body paintings. These body paintings have become what we
understand as tattoo art in modern civilizations. There are also many modern festivities where disguise is drawn in. Among the most popular ones, we can find Halloween and Carnival. The habit of disguise is not always related to festivities.
For example, during childhood the use of costumes may be related to understanding adult roles (playing doctor) and expressing fantasies (dressing up as a super hero). There is also the career of acting, another practice related to an adult profession, which usually demands the use of costumes and make-up. All of these practices give an account on how we create and express identity matters in our lives, since disguise appears during all the phases of human life.
Types of Disguise There are many types of human disguises and they usually involve costumes, props, camouflage techniques, and make-up. You can find costume shops or self-made disguises, which are commonly used to escape from a situation. Other form of modern disguise could be wearing uniforms, considering that they are worn so that everyone becomes identical to one another in order to be accepted. It hides your personal style and, in some way, part of your identity. During adolescence, human beings may embrace different uniforms to feel accepted. For example, at school or extracurrical activities. But not only humans can disguise: nature also carries disguise. Animals like the chameleon use camouflage to catch their prey, and many other species may use their environment to disguise and go unnoticed.
Features of Disguise The main features of disguise involve socialization, when speaking about humans, since it is a social and worldwide practice. Transformation is also an important part of this practice. It always involves the process of turning into something or someone else regardless of the final purpose. Another feature is the sense of time. It is important to understand that disguise is usually achieved in a certain period of time and that, at some point, the disguised person usually goes back to his or her real identity.
Other important features to appreciate about disguise are: gender issues, provocation, hiding, externalizing, challenging, and creating stereotypes.
Most kids love to wear disguises. This practice serves as entertainment, but also has a very positive effect as they grow up. Wearing other people’s clothing and playing different roles teaches children to behave as adults and to put themselves in someone else’s place. This helps them exteriorize and battle their fears. For example, a child can pretend to be a doctor and inject his teddy bear to assimilate the idea of visiting his or her
Benefits of wearing disguise A studied benefit of children wearing disguise is that it enhances their symbolic thinking. This type of thinking starts evolving when we are 2 years old and helps us understand the world that surrounds us. It also stimulates children’s creativity and encourages observation and imitation. In order to create a firemen or a nurse disguise, the child has to pay attention and imitate; this is an unlimited source of learning. In addition, it prepares children for adult life. They can learn about different types of professions, simulate marriage and even being parents. When children use disguise, it is important to let them choose their own costume.
Part of the joy in this game consists in deciding, because it is usually something they are not used to doing.
Choice of Disguise It is important to be aware of the choices of the child because it can give clues of their internal world.
For example, if a girl chooses to be a princess, it could mean she wants to be admired, and if a boy’s choice is being a tiger, he might want to impose his will. Disguise during childhood is not limited to parties or certain occasions. Having a trunk full of old clothes can provide a child with long hours of plenty of roles to perform.
What if... They Don’t Like Disguise?
There are not many, but some children resist to the idea of wearing costumes and disguising. This may happen for different reasons: the first one is that they may not feel secure about themselves and they might be afraid of leaving their own world; a second reason maybe shyness, which makes them feel ashamed of playing a role. Some children refuse to wear make-up as disguise because they can’t recognize themselves in the mirror. Others need to mature a bit more in order to understand that disguise is a practice and that they will eventually go back to their i d e n t i t y.
Phobia to Disguise Some children may develop a phobia towards people who wear disguise. It is quite easy to identify a phobia: the person feels an intense fear of an object -in this case, clowns or mimes-, which goes beyond mere anxiety or unease. The phobia to clowns is called coulrophobia and the one related to mimes and other costumes is called metamfiezomaiophobia
Once we grow up, the use of disguise starts changing into new forms. We will continue with this practice to liberate fantasies. This may happen during festivities such as Halloween or Carnival, but during our teenage years the use of costumes and certain type of clothing becomes a way of expressing our identity and relating to a certain group to feel accepted by society.
“But the sharp suits, leather jackets, jeans, kaftans, flares, DMs, slick suits and so fourth are the only visible, Group Belonging: tangible part of this legacy. Oozing through the clothes, Urban tribes hairstyles, make-up and accessories is an attitude. An The idea of wearing a certain attitude which perhaps more type of costume during ado- than any other set the tone of lescence is mostly associated life in the second half of the to a group affiliation which twentieth century and which contributes to creating and shows no sign of dissipating establishing part of our adult in the twenty-first century.” identity. These groups are Some of the most popular commonly known as tribes urban tribes from this period and have been present in so- are illustrated in his book. ciety mostly since WWII. In These tribes, street-style crehis book Streetstyle, sociolo- ators, are usually found on shared ideas, commitments, gist Ted Polhemus asserts: ideals, and practices. On the aesthetic side, for the most “Without Hipsters, part there is a certain type of Teddy Boys, Beats, costume that identifies the Rockers, Rude Boys, group members. Mods, Surfers, Somehow, choosing a group Hippies, Punks, makes us feel secure and acB-Boys, Flygirls, Rag- cepted during the time of our lives when we start showing gamuffins, Harajuku Girls -and all ourselves to the world. It is no longer a disguise, but we the other street style do still grab elements of originals- most of us certain stereotypes to relate would be left without our appearance to other people. anything to wear.”
Roleplaying As human beings, there is al- ways a desire to be differe n t a n d to take some distance from the mainstream culture. The word role has been used by sociologists and borrowed from its theatre meaning because it demonstrates that, like actors on stage, when growing up we identify with different parts that have to be learned and played every day as part of our life training. These roles and activities are clearly linked to what we wear every day and we are affected by our role set, which includes family, friends, people we see every day (employers, work mates) and peer groups.
For example, in neo urban tribes such as Cosplay there is a clear roleplaying when Manga fans wear the costumes of their favourite characters. This tribe might be the closest one to still be wearing disguise to liberate fantasies and bring to life cartoon characters
Neo Tribes There’s a long history when it comes to urban tribes. Nowadays, what we can talk about are neo tribes which have formed based on past urban-tribe styles and commitments.
Some of the most popular ones are Goths, Japanese Otakus, Lolitas and Cosplay, Emos, Rappers, Hipsters, Nerds, Hip Hopers, Indie Kids, and Neo Punks.
adult life or becomes him or herself, leaving the tribe “uniform” behind. Depending on the tribe, they might be closer to look like a full disguise rather than a tribe style or a street style uniform. For example, Japanese Lolitas wear such a coverage outfit that they are not recognizable as their own selves; they all look very similar.
Polhemus concludes his book affirming that “all of history’s streetstyles are limed up as if they were cans of soup on supermarket shelves and then they are ‘sampled’”. This means that nowadays we coIt is important to understand exist with all different kind of that the costumes related to streetstyles and sub cultures these tribes are usually out- where every indivual can mix side the formal adult way of and change. He asserts that dressing and that the com- this phenomenon is here mitment to the urban tribe to stay because is related to usually lasts a few years un- mainstrean culture rather til the teenager starts their than a minority.
By the time we start our adult life, we are supposed to be confident about ourselves and we should engage in our activities showing our true self. After building up our identity through childhood and adolescence, adulthood seems a period where disguise and costumes may only be worn for festivities and costume parties.
The Bad Side of Disguise Practice But there is still more when it comes to understanding disguise in modern societies. Apart from wearing costumes and disguises during celebrations, adults may also do so with other (not so good) purposes. One of the main uses of disguise in modern cultures is to commit crimes and go unnoticed by authorities
For example, there are outfits related to businessmen (expensive Italian suits), designers (maybe hipster Bank robbers, serial style), artists (hippie or lowkillers, low mount budget and reworn clothburglars, scammers ing), and the list may go on indefinitely. We usually imiand mobsters use tate a role model who is the disguise as a routine stereotype of what we would to perpetrate crimes. like to look and live like, and most of the time the one we In fact, part of the scary sen- desire to be is in a higher sation caused by disguises is social or economic level. due to the idea that someone in disguise might attack us. In contrast to this, we may Not knowing who is behind find some people who, inthe mask or costume is al- stead of imitating someone ways a bit uncomfortable and of a higher economic status causes anxiety and fear. or a desirable role model, actually do the opposite, trying to show an ordinary self to Disguise and become one of the multitude. Society Roles An example of this could be celebrities, who usually try to As we have analysed before, go unnoticed in the streets to during our teenage years dis- avoid paparazzo’s and fans, guise transforms itself into such amount of fame can be uniform; we wear these par- oppressing for an individual. ticular costumes referred to Other people who maybe a certain group in order to be keen to use disguise in this accepted. In adult years, it is particular way are detectives, common to still wear a uni- sociologists and anthropoloform, but this time related to gists. The first ones usually our occupation or profession. use disguise to meddle into
someone’s life in order to find out something about them. Sociologists and anthropologists may use costumes to do fieldwork studies among different parts of society. In the case of crimes, it is interesting to see how many robbers may disguise as specific workers (electrician, plumber, etc.) to commit the offense against the law. When it comes to disguise used by several individuals at the same time, we might be in the presence of protest disguise. Masks and other props work well to show a unity sentiment and the final image of the crowd all looking the same demonstrates quantity and strength. A mask very commonly used is Mr. Anonymous’, which can be seen in the film V for Ve n d e t t a .
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Occupations and Disguise The definition of actor is “a person whose profession is acting on the stage, in movies, or on television”; a second definition appears as “a person who behaves in a way that is not genuine” and cites the following example: “In war one must be a good actor.” This profession, which is known to have been present since the Greek civilization (the term comes from the word hypokrites that literally means “one who interprets”) is based on interpreting and making others believe you are someone different from your real self. Actors use disguise and costume in everyday life to show distinct roles and the more convincing the actor or actress looks wearing costumes, the more reliability he or she will gain.
There is also the case of portraying disguise within disguise. Some famous movies of actors portraying someone in disguise are: Tootsie, Batman, Mrs Doubtfire, The Mask and many, many more.
Other professions where disguise is protagonist are the artistic performers: clowns, magicians, artists who may use disguise and camouflage to create their piece of work, singers who use disguise in
order to create an atmosphere and any other artistic expression that may involve costume and the loss of identity. Finally, there is one last occupation that employs disguise for a certain purpose, these are detective and Goverment Agents. Investigators, can wear costumes to infiltrate in dangerous groups and have more than one identity to travel from place to place without being recognized. These people usually work undercover and their activities are kept in secret by countries’ governments.
Disguise has not only develop in our daily modern societies, but has been present in some other cultures where it significance varies. Tribal costumes and masks may be found in many ancient civilizations in different countries in Africa, Oceania, South America and North America. These tribes may wear costumes, masks and tattoos with symbolic meanings.
Among their beliefs, these costumes can symbolize fortress, honour, adultness, offerings and sacrifices.
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Some examples of camouflage in animals and insects can be found in Owls, Geckos, Carterpillars, Sea Horses, Chamaleons and Leaf Bugs.
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Not only humans are keen to the use of diguise, in fact we can find many examples of camouflage in nature. Also called cryptic coloration, this practice is usually a defence or tactic that organisms use to disguise their appearance, usually to blend with their surroundings. This type of camouflage is used as defence on the possible attack of other species and depends on the physical characteristics and behaviour. Animals can rely on their furs, feathers, and skins to protect themselves from external threats.
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