While the Halloween weekend arrived before the actual day of All Hallow’s Eve, it had become apparent throughout various neighborhoods of Seattle that this annual celebration to dress-up and become someone else for an evening is a holiday some gay men of this city take seriously with religious fervor.  Namely, eccentric details on outfits including props as well as personalities to match in addition to imbibing (responsibly mind you) here and there.

I’ve pondered why sometimes we choose the costumes we ultimately end up wearing out and how this may or may not meet some inner creative aspect of ourselves as well as how we desire to display our public face for a moment in time.  For example, we have the young (sometimes older) woman who decides to let it loose by donning the apparel of a bubbly, fertile Hooter’s waitress.

What is the gay man’s equivalent (excluding drag) if there is such a thing?  I would imagine it would lead us somewhere down the path of hyper-masculinity archetypes, which not only convey strength and authority but sexual virility as well.  My first thoughts center on Greek mythology with the tales of Odysseus on his voyage back home to Ithaca following the Trojan War.  Images of toga-clad men with sinewy carnality come to mind.  Along this vein the idea of men at war, men in uniform, men at work and men establishing domain of their environment – essentially wherever man is being pushed to his limits and boundaries can showcase one particular idea of masculinity leading to perhaps a myriad of thoughts on the concept of the sexual hyper-masculine archetype as an area of aspiration, even if just for a day.

A selection of images can perhaps clarify this idea just a tad further:

Photo by Nate Gowdy

Gangster, Count Dracula, Paul Bunyan, Tank Boy, Bobak Ferdowsi (NASA)

Props courtesy of Raul Villalobos, Digital Kitchen