Tricks & treats: You are what you wear

[jack_babalon]

It's not easy choosing the right Halloween Costume. The costume does not reflect who we wish to be but who we really are are. It was while attending grade school up in Yonkers that I learned that the costume was a dress up rorshac test, a rare chance to reveal and revel in our secret selves and for the parents it served as an indicator of the person their child would grow up to be. I remember the magical year Empire Strikes Back came out and everyone picked a Star Wars based costume for Halloween. I bet if you could follow the trajectory of their lives you'd find that the kids who dressed up as Han Solo went on to join an emo band, they sold bags out of their dorm rooms and were the driving force behind Gen-X cynicism as an art form. The kids who grew up to be Boba Fett became either computer geeks or drug dealers. Either way they were the first to get the new tech when it first came out and both blew serious bucks doing blow off a strippers ass. The Darth Vader's grew up to be either Goths or Yuppys, which isn't much of stretch since both are American archetypes that rely on enforcing a social caste system and the importance of fashion over substance. Meanwhile the Chewbacca's of the world find themselves in Iraq, Afghanistan or unemployed wondering when Bush's America is gonna get its shit together and the Stormtroopers can be seen working in gray cubicles like the one i'm in now. To be fair the Lando's & Leia's can't be used, it was the 80's and racism & sexism was still going down even in a galaxy far, far away so you had to make do with the one character you got. Luke Skywalker's were pussys, no exceptions & end of story.