Halloween Costumes

I've been thinking, could Halloween costumes be a form of parasocial relationships? Not the pumpkin and ghost sort, but the costumes I tend to see college students wearing. Last weekend, I was out and saw a girl dressed like Lady Gaga. I also saw characters from "Superbad" and "The Hangover." These people claimed to love them, and for that night, they actually became them.

So, is it a form of a parasocial relationship? Perhaps it's more idolization, but without mass media, we wouldn't know who these people were to "befriend" and eventually idolize them. Without the MTV music awards, the girl I saw wouldn't know what Lady Gaga wore, and we wouldn't know that it was what she was referring to. Without the movies, we wouldn't understand that a curly haired wig and a Tide container constituted as a costume - and find it hilarious. In fact, I saw many people comment on these costumes with high fives and handshakes; people tried to befriend them just because they were dressed as stars they have parasocial relationships with.

Even my group of friends dressed as people we have parasocial relationships with. We dressed as contestants on "Biggest Loser" and commented on who got what color. When my friend realized she was purple, she immediately said, "Ugh. I'm Tracy. I hate her." I don't think my friend even knows a Tracy. She was referring to the contestant, and she spoke of her as she had known her all her life.

It's actually very interesting to view Halloween as a statement of our parasocial relationships. It's probably one of the easiest time to recognize them, and if you pay attention, you can tell exactly who has a parasocial relationship with who.