Women in Costumes

I like girls who dress up in costumes, but then again ALL real Men do!

Hear me out!

Initially, when two people are attracted to one another, it is because of physical looks. Unless two people meet for the first time never having seen each other before, which is improbable because of the internet, they will first size up the other person using their eyes. Our most dominant sense is our vision, and we typically size up the opposite sex with our eyes first. This makes first visual impressions very important.

So why costumes? What do I mean by costumes?

Part of our human condition  is to seek purpose and make meaning in our lives; we seek closure in everything. Closure is what happens when our subconscious "completes the picture." When we can't see under the table, we assume that person sitting across from us has legs and can stand up. When we look at a Rorschach test, we  make up meaning out of the inkblots, even though they were created randomly, and we only do this by using our ability to establish closure. Closure is essential for us to be happy with the things that wouldn't otherwise make sense in our lives.

All humans are arrogant and have deep egos. Because of the human condition, we take closure a little too far: it causes us to believe we know everything when we discover something that seems to make sense--imagine seeing a pair of cowboy boots sticking under the table, it strengthens your assumptions that you understand things, even though it doesn't prove anything. The person on the other side of the table may as easily be paralyzed from the waist down and simply like to wear cowboy boots. Or they might not even be wearing the boots, they could just be sitting on the floor!

Not only does closure make us arrogant, it also leads us to desire things that aren't real. Because we have the ability to use our imagination and dream up anything we want, with a little help, we can make it believable enough that to us it is real and we're experiencing something real in our minds. That is why, when we read a book, watch a movie, or listen to a song, we can get an emotional experience from it. It can literally suck us into another etherverse and we suddenly feel as if it were real, so our emotional reactions are also real. Closure causes us to do this. What little information we receive is just enough information to cause our imaginations to fill in the rest and make it real. It's Magic! Pure Magic!

Closure happens in everything, but it is most powerful in visual form, so when we see someone in costume, we equate that with reality. We believe what we see, more than what we smell, hear, taste, or touch. We assume that a woman wearing a business suit is going to behave professionally, a woman wearing a provocative red dress is going to be seductive, and a woman in blond and pig-tails is going to be completely naive and ditsy. Closure does this. We complete the "full picture" in our heads and make assumptions based on that closure effect.
I'm going to postpone writing an article on the ethics of this, because personally I think it's very complex (to lay the ethics of wearing "costumes" is to determine whether it is correct to wear costumes, whether it is correct to make assumptions, whether it is correct to act on those assumptions, and whose fault is it? the costumer or the viewer?)

In movies, classy ones, not the smut that inexperienced filmmakers make, closure is used to enhance particularly emotional scenes. Instead of watching a full sex scene, professionals will show as minimal as possible, the lifting of a skirt in a dark room, a pair of kissing heads pushing off camera, &c. To further the effect, they typically describe one specific aspect of the scene, about like adding one adjective to a word: Brief glimpses of beast-like behavior manifested when she bears her fangs (beast-like, paralyzed?), a diversity of human sounds (...), extreme close-ups of indistinguishable skin bumps(cold, nervous?) &c. PG-13 movies tend to be more saucy than R-rated movies, and they achieve higher success (financially) because of it.

With the power of closure, less is more.


When I say costumes, I really mean clothing and attire. But not necessarily WHAT is being worn, but HOW it is being worn and what ISN'T being worn and should be in order to complete the costume.

Costumes are historical. The Egyptians figured out the significance of make-up and jewelry in developing a "costume" long ago, Persians devised body-paint, and it's anybody's guess of who came up with the first tattoo. Silk was very popular, historically, because it has the ability to blow in the wind and also how snug it could fit to the body. Specific aspects of the frame could be emphasized while everything else was loose and guessable. Whenever we are forced to use our imagination, we tend to make it better than it really is.
Makeup is especially intriguing. In it's most basic form, makeup changes the light around a person's body. Historically, and even today, the eyes have been considered the light of the body. When two people look directly into each others' eyes for extended periods of time, a strange phenomenon takes place in which thoughts can be conveyed and shared. This is very powerful and magical too, and because of it's power, eye-shadow is designed to direct all of the light reflecting off of a woman's face, into her eyes. When other people look at her, the composition of her face (enhanced by the makeup) focus attention on the iris.
In Asia, covering a woman's full face in make-up forced men to wonder what was underneath and it forced closure. The face is typically considered where a person's wisdom and personality are most manifest. The way a person smiles, or if they smile at all, is a good indicator of their general demeanor. People can have "shy" smiles, "cocky" smiles, disturbed smiles, and angry smiles. There is something in the way our faces warp and shape over time that is correlated to our personalities. Completely covering a woman's face in makeup leaves a lot of her personality up for interpretation and imagination.

What most men are really looking for isn't a reality--they want a guise. There are many "pretty" women who, when seen without makeup, might scare even the neighbor's cat. But for anyone who thinks they can sidestep the costumes, I suppose I have to be the messenger who tells you you're trapped in it: women who don't wear a "costume" are seen as boring, uninteresting, and 'plain.' When you reveal too much of your true self, men figure you out too quickly and lose interest equally as fast.

Don't fret though, when I initially started this article it was my objective to first convince you that you are wearing a costume--whether you like it or not! And second, to tell you what to do about it: wear a costume.
For whatever reason, when humans realize their inevitable isolation (because you have no control over this, you feel distanced from the world and it makes you upset), they want to complain and make demands. People push for social change when they notice little things like this, but they don't realize that these aren't weaknesses or disabilities, they're strengths!
Since you have no control over this whole "costume" thing, why not wear the most spectacular costume? Why not devise the perfect persona that will help you reach your long-term goals? Why not enjoy the fact that every day of your life you can use your imagination to establish closure in other people? Really, all you are doing, is helping others enjoy their lives and find purpose.
And, beautifully, costumes aren't limited to stereotypes. Costumes are hand-crafted and can fit any situation, any personality, and any person. The key to designing a costume is to locate your strengths and weaknesses and to emphasize your strengths and hide your weaknesses. Leave your weak points up to the imagination--they'll aggrandize it an your favor! Make your strengths stand out.

Thinking about it, these "costumes" should really be called "Personal Advertising", or "Personal Branding" because what you are really doing is advertising yourself. When people buy a product, they don't judge the product by the advertisements they see for it, they judge the product by the product. If they get lured in by the advertising, you will still need to maintain their illusions, or else be genuine. Interestingly, given enough time using a product, people develop a loyalty to that product or brand. Ford fans or Chevy fans, to this day, refuse to buy any other brand, even when the parts for these vehicles are manufactured practically the same. If you can maintain the illusion of your 'costume' long enough in front of people, it doesn't matter, people will develop a loyalty to who you are presenting, and it will be VERY difficult to sever that loyalty.