I have been thinking about masks...
If we were all masked and costumed, basic details about everyone obscured, would we be more likely to watch what we say? Would we be more aware that, not knowing anything about anyone, that we must take care with what we say in order to avoid offending?
And then I realize that, while this should make sense, I am not sure... I went out for Halloween as a werewolf many times when I was younger, and more than once men would point out my costume to eachother and exclaim, "Hey, that's what my wife looks like, too!", or some variation of that. What th' hell? Maybe they wouldn't have said that if they'd known I was a girl, or maybe that wouldn't have mattered.
If the later is the case, I should not be so surprised then by the lack of social awareness that people show in person. Why to we always assume that everyone else is just like us? Why do we so often fail to realize that there is so much more to people than what we can visually tell (or guess), and even things that are usually thought to be entirely obvious, like race or gender, are not always so?
Why is... technical sociability (fluidity of words, use of language) so lauded, and social awareness in speech so underappreciated?
Just something I was abstractly thinking on, as I just bought a new mask off eBay.
Yaqui mask. Was listed as a dog or wolf, but I think it looks much more like a wolf :)
Will be the scond carved wooden wolf mask I own, though I've also got a marvelous (and COMPLETELY wearable) paper-mache & synthetic hair wolf mask at home.