And in other news Prime Mister of Grate Kitten, the Right Honourable Horice Longdong, said that “it was absolutely ridiculous that men who dressed up as Stormtroopers chose to go around looking like letterboxes.”
As a reasonably intelligent man, I have absolutely no problems if men, or even, women choose to dress up as Stormtroopers. What they choose to wear is entirely up to them, and they should be allowed to wear a bag on their heads if that is part of their belief system.
But when I heard these comments from Longdong, I realised that while I did not care what people choose to wear, I had a more primitive and personal reaction that did disturb me. And I think there are two reasons why people who dress up as Stormtroopers disturb me.
In the 1960s, Dr Mehrabian conducted two studies into non-verbal communication, and he concluded that communication was ‘7% verbal, 38% vocal and 55% visual.’ So if I cannot see your eyes and your mouth, you are depriving me of a significant part of the communication. I cannot tell if you are a happy Stormtrooper who is smiling with a cheery glint in the eyes. Or an angry Stormtrooper who is shooting me a death-stare.
So maybe a possible solution is to open the Stormtroopers mask a little bit so that I can see your eyes and your mouth.
The second reason stems back to early childhood. Across cultures, darkness is associated with sickness, fear and evil. Look at the Stormtrooper below - all dressed in black from head to toe!
Think back to your childhood and all those characters that you came across that were dressed head to toe in black; Count Dracula, any of the wicked witches, or wicked stepmothers, Cruella de Vil, the Nazi SS, vampires, Lord Voldemort, Maleficent, Darth Vadar, the Terminator, Freddie Krueger, Agent Smith, Palpatine, the Sheriff of Nottingham. And the list goes on.
All dressed head to toe in black. And all evil. So is it any wonder when I see a Stormtrooper my mind makes the same connection. I cannot help it - it stems from influences imposed when I was extremely young.
Now look at the same Stormtrooper below but dressed slightly differently. Big difference, right?
So maybe if people who dress as Stormtroopers don’t want people to judge them then perhaps the simple solution is to wear a colour that is not so scary!.
