This is an odd angle, and may mean I'm posting too early in the day, but I wonder whether a piece of it is an equation not only with Halloween and children, as nellorat notes, but with masks. Someone dressed up as a queen is one thing: someone dressed as a storm trooper or alien, with their face covered, is doing something different and potentially scarier. They aren't "my friend Jim in a jester costume" or even "this tall stranger in a long gown and a crown on her head," they're hard to identify and thus scary. Mask=disguise, in many contexts: the bank robber covering his face so the witnesses can't identify him, or the (possibly romantic) illicit lover doing the same.
Whether or not this happens, someone might be thinking "five guys dressed as Darth Vader, what if one of them attacks me? I won't be able to tell the cops which one it was."
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zvi and
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Date: 2008-08-16 01:25 pm (UTC)Whether or not this happens, someone might be thinking "five guys dressed as Darth Vader, what if one of them attacks me? I won't be able to tell the cops which one it was."