Abstract
Some assume that “putting on a costume” allows you to dress as someone you are not. In his new photo-ethnographic book My Costume, Myself: Celebrating Stories of Cosplay and Beyond (Kirk House, May 2023), Endres argues that putting on a costume allows you to explore existing facets of your personality that often are muted. This essay takes a closer look at that publication and narrows the focus to ask, “In what ways can costumes be used to express and experiment with cultural factors like age, race, gender, sexual identity, body size, levels of ability/disability, and of religion?” Highlighting extant research in the book, those findings, stories, and photos from the publication which focus most on message displays of diversity and inclusion in self-identification are shared. Being Western focused, a brief discussion of global participation is included. Conclusions address the efficacy of costume use in personal and cultural display, and an observation on the balance between “appropriate and appropriation” in costume messages.
Author Information
Thomas G. Endres, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Paper Information
Conference: BAMC2023
Stream: Communication
This paper is part of the BAMC2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Endres T. (2023) Costume, Culture, and Congruence: Identification and Representation of Self via Costume Play ISSN: 2435-9475 – The Barcelona Conference on Arts, Media & Culture 2023: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9475.2023.12
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9475.2023.12
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