Hello, I think that your post is very interesting! I do not believe that I have seen someone dress up as a homeless person for Halloween but I also have a very bad memory. But it would not be a good idea to dress up as a homeless person for Halloween for many reasons. Some reasons are it is very insensitive, stereotyping a group of people, and these people also are probably down on their luck. I am also surprised that OU students would dress up as homeless people during HallOUween weekend since normally people dress up sexy, in group costumes, or people/things from shows/media. And it might have been different a few years ago but now people mostly get all dressed up for photos and videos to post on social media. I have never really sat down and thought about how my previous Halloween costumes could offend someone or a group of people before but usually I try to stay away from dressing as real people like this year I was Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and a vampire slayer. But after reading this article, I will try to be more mindful in the future.
(For full context, see my "blog post" from Dec. 5).
I think that it is interesting that dressing as a hobo used to be common practice in a less politically correct time period. I think this photograph reflects the nature of humans in a way that may explain (if not excuse) a person dressing up as a homeless person for Halloween.
It is important to understand that many of these kids would have grown up in comparatively hard times. True, this predates the depression, but that does not negate the fact that it is the 1920s. Basic utilities such as running water, electricity and gas were still rare or brand new in 1927; "In 1937, only ten percent of Ohioans living in rural south-central Ohio had electricity in their homes," (Ohio History Connection). Certainly most of these kids would have lived in conditions far worse than most kids in modern Athens, some of even the middle class being worse off than the modern poor. Lacking a gas stove, central heating, an in-house water closet and a family car, the poorer kids, though still elevated from the rank of hobo, were far less removed than those kids of today. Many of their parents and grandparents had grown up in an even less advanced time, in a time when most families were lucky to have one room all to themselves, in a time before grocery stores, in a time when people were generally sick all through the winter due to malnutrition (Allitt 2014). Also, the "homelessness epidemic" of the 1980s had yet to occur, so it would have been far easier for them to see hobos, most of them young men, as a romanticized quirk of their society rather than their status as an endemic problem, perhaps the same way we view the bohemian characters of "Rent".
Hello, I think that your post is very interesting! I do not believe that I have seen someone dress
ReplyDeleteup as a homeless person for Halloween but I also have a very bad memory. But it would not be a good idea to dress up as a homeless person for Halloween for many reasons. Some reasons are it is very insensitive, stereotyping a group of people, and these people also are probably down on their luck. I am also surprised that OU students would dress up as homeless people during HallOUween weekend since normally people dress up sexy, in group costumes, or people/things from shows/media. And it might have been different a few years ago but now people mostly get all dressed up for photos and videos to post on social media. I have never really sat down and thought about how my previous Halloween costumes could offend someone or a group of people before but usually I try to stay away from dressing as real people like this year I was Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and a vampire slayer. But after reading this article, I will try to be more mindful in the future.
(For full context, see my "blog post" from Dec. 5).
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that dressing as a hobo used to be common practice in a less politically correct time period. I think this photograph reflects the nature of humans in a way that may explain (if not excuse) a person dressing up as a homeless person for Halloween.
It is important to understand that many of these kids would have grown up in comparatively hard times. True, this predates the depression, but that does not negate the fact that it is the 1920s. Basic utilities such as running water, electricity and gas were still rare or brand new in 1927; "In 1937, only ten percent of Ohioans living in rural south-central Ohio had electricity in their homes," (Ohio History Connection). Certainly most of these kids would have lived in conditions far worse than most kids in modern Athens, some of even the middle class being worse off than the modern poor. Lacking a gas stove, central heating, an in-house water closet and a family car, the poorer kids, though still elevated from the rank of hobo, were far less removed than those kids of today. Many of their parents and grandparents had grown up in an even less advanced time, in a time when most families were lucky to have one room all to themselves, in a time before grocery stores, in a time when people were generally sick all through the winter due to malnutrition (Allitt 2014). Also, the "homelessness epidemic" of the 1980s had yet to occur, so it would have been far easier for them to see hobos, most of them young men, as a romanticized quirk of their society rather than their status as an endemic problem, perhaps the same way we view the bohemian characters of "Rent".