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Introduction to Disguise........................................................................4-5Childhood & Disguise.............................................................................6-7Teenagers & Disguise.............................................................................8-11Adults & Disguise.................................................................................12-15Disguise in Non Modern Societies........................................................16Disguise & Nature......................................................................................17Bibliography & Other Resources.....................................................18-19

History of Diguise:A glimpse.

The Oxford English Diction-ary defines disguise as “to give

(someone or oneself ) a different appear-

ance in order to conceal one’s identity”, and costume as “a set of clothes in a style typical of a particular coun-try or historical period.” Disguise has been present throughout his-

tory 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 in-cluded platform shoes and masks, which were used to communicate expressions. We have earned the prac-tice of theatre and acting from the Greeks, and this discipline has evolved, lead-ing 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 paint-ings have become what we

understand as tattoo art in modern civilizations. There are also many modern fes-tivities 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 doc-tor) and expressing fantasies (dressing

up as a super hero).

There is also the career of act-ing, 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 cre-ate and express identity matters in our lives, since disguise appears during all the phases of human life.

Types of DisguiseThere are many types of hu-man disguises and they usu-ally involve costumes, props, camouflage techniques, and make-up. You can find cos-tume shops or self-made dis-guises, which are commonly used to escape from a situa-tion. Other form of modern disguise could be wearing uniforms, considering that they are worn so that eve-ryone becomes identical to one another in order to be accepted. It hides your per-sonal style and, in some way, part of your identity. During adolescence, human beings may embrace differ-ent uniforms to feel accept-ed. 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 dis-guise involve socialization, when speaking about hu-mans, since it is a social and worldwide practice. Transformation is also an important part of this practice. It always involves the pro-cess of turning into something or someone else regardless of the fi-nal purpose. Another feature is the sense of time. It is important to u n d e r s t a n d that disguise is u s u a l l y 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 is-sues, provocation, hiding, externalizing, challenging, and creating stereotypes.

Benefits of wearing disguise

A studied benefit of chil-dren wearing disguise is that it enhances their sym-bolic 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 fire-men or a nurse disguise, the child has to pay attention and imitate; this is an un-limited source of learning.In addition, it prepares chil-dren for adult life. They can learn about different types of professions, simu-late marriage and even be-

ing 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, be-cause 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 be-cause it can give clues of their internal world.

For example, if a girl chooses to be a prin-

cess, 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.

Most kids love to wear dis-guises. This practice serves as entertainment, but also has a very positive effect as they grow up.Wearing other people’s clothing and playing differ-ent roles teaches children to behave as adults and to put themselves in someone else’s place. This helps them exte-riorize and battle their fears. For example, a child can pre-tend to be a doctor and inject his teddy bear to assimilate the idea of visiting his or her

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 shy-ness, which makes them feel ashamed of playing a role.

Some children refuse to wear make-up as dis-

guise 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.

What if... They Don’t Like Dis-

guise?

Phobia to DisguiseSome children may develop a phobia towards people who wear disguise. It is quite easy to identify a phobia: the per-son 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 liber-ate fantasies. This may hap-pen 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 relat-ing to a cer-tain group to feel accepted by society.

“But the sharp suits, leath-er jackets, jeans, kaftans, flares, DMs, slick suits and so fourth are the only visible, tangible part of this legacy. Oozing through the clothes, hairstyles, make-up and ac-cessories is an attitude. An attitude which perhaps more than any other set the tone of life in the second half of the twentieth century and which shows no sign of dissipating in the twenty-first century.” Some of the most popular urban tribes from this period are illustrated in his book. These tribes, street-style cre-ators, are usually found on shared ideas, commitments, ideals, and practices. On the aesthetic side, for the most part there is a certain type of costume that identifies the group members. Somehow, choosing a group makes us feel secure and ac-cepted during the time of our lives when we start showing ourselves to the world. It is no longer a disguise, but we do still grab elements of certain stereotypes to relate our appearance to other peo-ple.

Roleplaying

As human beings, there is al- ways a de-sire to b e d i f -f e r -e n t a n d to take some dis-tance from the main-stream cul-ture. 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 activi-ties 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.

Group Belonging: Urban tribes

The idea of wearing a certain type of costume during ado-lescence is mostly associated to a group affiliation which contributes to creating and establishing part of our adult identity. These groups are commonly known as tribes and have been present in so-ciety mostly since WWII. In his book Streetstyle, sociolo-gist Ted Polhemus asserts:

“Without Hipsters, Teddy Boys, Beats,

Rockers, Rude Boys, Mods, Surfers,

Hippies, Punks, B-Boys, Flygirls, Rag-

gamuffins, Harajuku Girls -and all

the other street style originals- most of us

would be left without anything to wear.”

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 dis-guise to lib-erate fan-tasies and

bring to life cartoon

characters

Neo TribesThere’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.

It is important to understand that the costumes related to these tribes are usually out-side the formal adult way of dressing and that the com-mitment to the urban tribe usually lasts a few years un-til the teenager starts their

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 cover-age 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 su-permarket shelves and then they are ‘sampled’”. This means that nowadays we co-exist with all different kind of streetstyles and sub cultures where every indivual can mix and change. He asserts that this phenomenon is here to stay because is related to mainstrean culture rather than a minority.

By the time we start our adult life, we are supposed to be confident about our-selves and we should engage in our activities showing our true self. After build-ing up our identity through childhood and adolescence, adulthood seems a period where disguise and costumes may only be worn for fes-tivities and costume parties.

The Bad Side of Disguise Practice

But there is still more when it comes to understanding disguise in modern socie-ties. Apart from wearing costumes and disguises dur-ing celebrations, adults may also do so with other (not so good) purposes. One of the main uses of disguise in mod-ern cultures is to commit crimes and go unnoticed by authorities

Bank robbers, serial killers, low mount

burglars, scammers and mobsters use

disguise as a routine to perpetrate crimes.

In fact, part of the scary sen-sation caused by disguises is due to the idea that someone in disguise might attack us. Not knowing who is behind the mask or costume is al-ways a bit uncomfortable and causes anxiety and fear.

Disguise and Society Roles

As we have analysed before, during our teenage years dis-guise transforms itself into uniform; we wear these par-ticular costumes referred to a certain group in order to be accepted. In adult years, it is common to still wear a uni-form, but this time related to our occupation or profession.

For example, there are out-fits related to businessmen (expensive Italian suits), designers (maybe hipster style), artists (hippie or low-budget and reworn cloth-ing), and the list may go on indefinitely. We usually imi-tate a role model who is the stereotype of what we would like to look and live like, and most of the time the one we desire to be is in a higher social or economic level.

In contrast to this, we may find some people who, in-stead of imitating someone of a higher economic status or a desirable role model, ac-tually do the opposite, trying to show an ordinary self to become one of the multitude. An example of this could be celebrities, who usually try to go unnoticed in the streets to avoid paparazzo’s and fans, such amount of fame can be oppressing for an individual. Other people who maybe keen to use disguise in this particular way are detectives, sociologists and anthropolo-gists. The first ones usually use disguise to meddle into

someone’s life in order to find out something about them. Sociologists and anthropolo-gists may use costumes to do fieldwork studies among dif-ferent parts of society. In the case of crimes, it is interest-ing 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 sev-eral individuals at the same time, we might be in the presence of protest disguise. Masks and other props work well to show a unity senti-ment and the final image of the crowd all looking the same demonstrates quantity and strength. A mask very commonly used is Mr. Anon-ymous’, which can be seen in the film V for Ve n d e t t a .

Frank Abagnale

Mr.Anonymous

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 dis-guise 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 atmos-phere and any other artistic expression that may involve costume and the loss of iden-tity. Finally, there is one last occu-pation that employs disguise for a certain purpose, these are detective and Goverment Agents. Investigators, can wear cos-tumes to infiltrate in danger-ous groups and have more than one identity to travel from place to place without being recognized. These people usually work undercover and their ac-tivities are kept in secret by countries’ governments.

Occupations and Disguise

The definition of actor is “a person whose profession is acting on the stage, in mov-ies, or on television”; a sec-ond 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 ac-tor.” 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 cos-tumes, the more reliability he or she will gain.

Disguise has not only devel-op in our daily modern soci-eties, but has been present in some other cultures where it significance varies. Tribal costumes and masks may be found in many ancient civili-zations in different countries in Africa, Oceania, South America and North America. These tribes may wear cos-tumes, masks and tattoos with symbolic meanings.

Among their beliefs, these costumes can symbolize fortress, honour, adultness,

offerings and sacrifices.

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 pos-sible attack of other species and depends on the physi-cal characteristics and be-haviour. Animals can rely on their furs, feathers, and skins to protect themselves from external threats.

Some examples of camouflage in

animals and insects can be found in Owls,

Geckos, Carterpillars,

Sea Horses, Chamaleons and Leaf

Bugs.

BrownCreeper

Gecko

Oakleaf Butterfly

Stick Bug

Hummingbird

Owl

Leaf Bug

Walking

Leaf

TreeHoppers

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