So let’s face it, every day life is fairly boring. The sky is grey, the buildings are concrete and reality isn’t a lot of fun. So the rare occasions when we get to dress up and escape the dreariness are definitely worth cherishing. All of us (most of us) are stuck in a single career most of our lives and it’s not that satisfying. By pretending, we get to experience different aspects of life which we would normally never have access to. There’s an enormous fantasy world out there which we never get to be a part of. Dragons, spaceships and pirates simply don’t exist in this world but it’s so much fun to pretend, just for a few hours. How many of you can honestly say that you wouldn’t love to see a girl in a Princess Leia slave costume wandering about? I use that example because I happened to actually see one last week at a pop culture convention and it was awesome. She was so sick of getting hit on she wore a t-shirt over her costume for the majority of the day.

A lot of people make the point that people who dress up or hide behind a costume are either lacking in self confidence or not happy with themselves. I’m not endorsing pathological, chronic costume-wearing, just advocating the fun of mixing up the routine and escaping reality for a little bit. Also, dressing up allows you to experience the company or someone who you’ll never meet in the comfort and safety of your own home. Like if you have a thing for Batman, you can just talk your boyfriend into wearing the outfit And if you happen to be wearing a Joker costume, where’s the harm?

Image via Wikipedia

Sorry if I deeply disturbed anyone with that last example, it’s a subject close to my heart. That may not be your fantasy, but everyone has then and it’s healthy to explore them. If you want to experience something different, out of the realm of the ordinary, them you can – safely.

I also believe that the outfits we choose to dress up in say a lot about ourselves. That’s why halloween is such a great night, you find out a lot about your friends. There’ll always be hoardes of young women in skin-tight cat outfits (which I’m not complaining about by the way) but I love seeing really unique outfits.

Essentially, role playing is a fun and exciting option which is open to all of us to expand our realm of experience outside the ordinary; escape the square we live in every day - just for a little while.