Costumes & Caricatures
Costumes & Caricatures
Anonymous snapshot, Gift of Peter J. Cohen, 2019.499
The implications, meanings, and values invested in the popular pastime of dress-up are wide-ranging. Costuming coincides with holidays such as Mardi Gras and Halloween that sanction social transgressions and cheeky performances. Costumes can also serve ceremonial or pedagogical purposes for school groups, hobbyist clubs, and cultural events.
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But at what point does a costume become a caricature, or worse, racial mimicry? Dressing-up as cultural and racial stereotypes is a form of domination made to appear innocent by virtue of the fact that it occurs in the context of play. Snapshots demonstrate just how ingrained and overlooked this type of violence can be.
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