Take a second and think back to being eight to twelve years old. Can you remember it? If you do, I'm sure you'll remember pretending to be your favorite movie or TV character. I remember pretending to be the Kids Next Door, along with my cousins and neighbors. But this practice can go much deeper than just a couple of young kids pretending to battle off giant lice or a swarm of teenagers. People do this everyday to get through their lives, whether they realize it or not.
People take on different personalities everyday. It's used to shake up the often boring mundane lives of the average person, but can also be used as a survival tool. The child whose parents are in an abusive relationship may pretend to be Superman, to fly far away from their combustible lifestyle. The undersized football player may take on the infamous Rudy character, who personifies courage, resilience and strength. We put so much time and effort into searching ourselves and trying to understand who we are as people, that we often don't acknowledge that much of our personality is contrived from nothing more than pop culture. It's not something to be ashamed of either, it's a natural psychological phenomenon that occurs in most people. We want to be like the people we see.
Now, this can be both good and bad. It's natural and harmless when someone changes their persona based off of a character or subject, in certain situations. But if someone becomes obsessive over a particular character or subject, that's when fanboy meets psycho. We see it everyday, though. The football coach who wants to be WAY to much like Mike Ditka. The fratboy who acts, looks and laughs like Stifler from American Pie. The try hard rebel like John Bender from The Breakfast Club or the classic stoner surfer at any coastal school, Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The best of all, Regina George, valley-girl, plastic and pink attire. We do this to fit in, to identify ourselves, and that's okay. But it can be dangerous because some individuals can get lost in the fantasies that they live in; try going to any Comic Convention and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.
We can embrace our quilted personas because not everyone likes the same thing. Just because your personality is designed based off of the music you listen to, the movies you watch and the style of clothes you were, doesn't make it any less personal. Pretending is fine, but living in a fantasy where you are the character you love, isn't very wise.
