I don't see how dressing up for a Star Wars premier or an Anime con is any different or worse than dressing up for Halloween. Walking down to 7-11 in your Tifa or Vader costume is a little strange, sure. But dressing up in costume for a special event or occasion where that kind of thing is considered to be part of the fun seems pretty logical to me.
I don't see how dressing up for a Star Wars premier or an Anime con is any different or worse than dressing up for Halloween. Walking down to 7-11 in your Tifa or Vader costume is a little strange, sure. But dressing up in costume for a special event or occasion where that kind of thing is considered to be part of the fun seems pretty logical to me.
What part about a grown adult wearing a costume to celebrate the opening of a children's movie sounds "fun?"
When your lifestyle could easily be misconstrued as that of a child abductor, maybe it's time to rethink some things.
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Deebaseron my way to work in a suit and a tieAhhhh...come on fucking guyRegistered Userregular
I think that part of the Harry Potter weirdness might just be the fact that there exist a large number of folks who take the books verrrrrrrry seriously, to the point of being kind of weird about it. I'd wager that most people wouldn't think twice if they saw someone dressed up like, say, Charlie Brown for Halloween. Because Charlie Brown doesn't have obsessive fans who flip their shit because this one comic strip from 1972 contains a complete ret-con compared to this other strip from 1968.
You're onto something Maybe we hate enthusiasm?
SHIT! We're NERDHIPSTERS!!!!!
It's not the subject that bothers Team What You See Is What You Get, it's grown people expressing whimsy and enjoyment over something currently popular with children.
We hate ... pop culture. This makes too much sense. Oh my god, we're hipster snobs!
beat'd by the same post.
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Deebaseron my way to work in a suit and a tieAhhhh...come on fucking guyRegistered Userregular
I don't tabletop or card game, but I was at my local comic shop the other day when they were hosting a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament. It was literally a dozen 10 year olds . . . . and one morbidly obese 40 year old dude who looked like he never showered a day in his life.
If I was taking my kid to that, we'd have turned right the fuck around and left.
I find the adults who dress up like Harry Potter characters even more disturbing. There is something fundamentally wrong with a 30 year-old dressing up like a fictional schoolkid. Great, you like the Harry Potter series. But why would you want to dress up like a 14 year-old boy wizard?
Same reason "Catholic high school girl" is a popular Hallowe'en costume? I am speaking from the female perspective of dressing up, at least. *shrug*
Obviously there is a fundamental divide of perspectives here. I'll never understand why dressing up as something fun, just because it's fun, is inherently bad just because the person doing it is 30. Suddenly when it comes to cosplay, nobody wants to make the distinction between people who let their hobbies rule their lives, and those who separate it from their professions. But what do I know, I also have an MMO wallpaper and a media cabinet full of game DVDs. I simply don't see the difference. Play is play and fun is fun.
Catholic High School Girl at least has the implied "SENIOR" in it, so that it's at least overtly sexual/slutty in a barely legal sort of way.
I don't tabletop or card game, but I was at my local comic shop the other day when they were hosting a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament. It was literally a dozen 10 year olds . . . . and one morbidly obese 40 year old dude who looked like he never showered a day in his life.
If I was taking my kid to that, we'd have turned right the fuck around and left.
I find the adults who dress up like Harry Potter characters even more disturbing. There is something fundamentally wrong with a 30 year-old dressing up like a fictional schoolkid. Great, you like the Harry Potter series. But why would you want to dress up like a 14 year-old boy wizard?
Same reason "Catholic high school girl" is a popular Hallowe'en costume? I am speaking from the female perspective of dressing up, at least. *shrug*
Going down that road of thought makes the 30 year-old dude dressing up like Harry Potter seem even more creepy. There is, as I'm sure you know, a very strong sexual aspect to the grown up woman wearing the schoolgirl outfit. But the 30 year-old woman wearing that outfit isn't typically hanging out with a bunch of kids, in my experience.
Modern Man on
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I don't tabletop or card game, but I was at my local comic shop the other day when they were hosting a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament. It was literally a dozen 10 year olds . . . . and one morbidly obese 40 year old dude who looked like he never showered a day in his life.
If I was taking my kid to that, we'd have turned right the fuck around and left.
I find the adults who dress up like Harry Potter characters even more disturbing. There is something fundamentally wrong with a 30 year-old dressing up like a fictional schoolkid. Great, you like the Harry Potter series. But why would you want to dress up like a 14 year-old boy wizard?
Same reason "Catholic high school girl" is a popular Hallowe'en costume? I am speaking from the female perspective of dressing up, at least. *shrug*
Going down that road of thought makes the 30 year-old dude dressing up like Harry Potter seem even more creepy. There is, as I'm sure you know, a very strong sexual aspect to the grown up woman wearing the schoolgirl outfit. But the 30 year-old woman wearing that outfit isn't typically hanging out with a bunch of kids, in my experience.
Neither do I hang out with a bunch of kids when dressed up as Hermione Granger.
I also don't hang out at the book premieres. I mean, there's a whole bunch of assuming going on here, as though there's only one way to cosplay and only one set of people who do it and only one motivation for it.
I actually like school uniforms because I like dressing up. I never had school uniforms as a kid and I think they're nifty. There's no grand scheme behind it. I just like dressing up as things sometimes.
I don't see how dressing up for a Star Wars premier or an Anime con is any different or worse than dressing up for Halloween. Walking down to 7-11 in your Tifa or Vader costume is a little strange, sure. But dressing up in costume for a special event or occasion where that kind of thing is considered to be part of the fun seems pretty logical to me.
What part about a grown adult wearing a costume to celebrate the opening of a children's movie sounds "fun?"
When your lifestyle could easily be misconstrued as that of a child abductor, maybe it's time to rethink some things.
The part where what's fun for some people isn't for others? I'm sorry, there's an objective definition of allowable and non-allowable standards of fun? That we're discussing on a video game forum? This is absurd.
Peee esss, Americans are too hysterical about child abductors, and not everyone who cosplays does so around children. I haven't seen a single child at a midnight showing of a Harry Potter movie to date.
Does this topic have a point anymore? It seems like it's just one group stating that another is full of horrible people for their likes or habits now, there isn't even any consideration or objectivism anymore.
Right. Wal-Mart will sell you a suit for about $40 bucks, and you can get decent jeans and a collared shirt for about $18 combined.
The way you dress is a conscious decision to express yourself. Much like free speech, you are still partly responsible for the repercussions of such a statement.
While, again, I agree more or less with your second statement, a $40 suit from Wal-Mart looks like a $40 suit from Wal-Mart. This is fine if you're appearing in court, where a suit is mandatory, and your other wardrobe choice is a $50 shirt from Jinx and ratty jeans; but part of the message that people take away from your clothes has to do with your financial condition and your socioeconomic class. "Well you CHOOSE to wear a shitty suit instead of a $500 pinstripe from Brooks Brothers!"
mythago on
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I don't see how dressing up for a Star Wars premier or an Anime con is any different or worse than dressing up for Halloween. Walking down to 7-11 in your Tifa or Vader costume is a little strange, sure. But dressing up in costume for a special event or occasion where that kind of thing is considered to be part of the fun seems pretty logical to me.
When your lifestyle could easily be misconstrued as that of a child abductor, maybe it's time to rethink some things.
Eh. Modern paranoia isn't very reasonable.
Mr. Rogers acts how we percieve a child abductor would. People giving candy out to children just because, as well. And yet people can be incredibly nice and soft spoken and generous without creepy motives.
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
Right. Wal-Mart will sell you a suit for about $40 bucks, and you can get decent jeans and a collared shirt for about $18 combined.
The way you dress is a conscious decision to express yourself. Much like free speech, you are still partly responsible for the repercussions of such a statement.
While, again, I agree more or less with your second statement, a $40 suit from Wal-Mart looks like a $40 suit from Wal-Mart. This is fine if you're appearing in court, where a suit is mandatory, and your other wardrobe choice is a $50 shirt from Jinx and ratty jeans; but part of the message that people take away from your clothes has to do with your financial condition and your socioeconomic class. "Well you CHOOSE to wear a shitty suit instead of a $500 pinstripe from Brooks Brothers!"
most people couldn't really tell the difference between a wal-mart suit and a brooks suit without a pretty close inspection.
and further, the "wearing of the suit" in the contexts we're mentioning doesn't have to do with the expense so much as the willingness to wear a suit.
sure, if you wear a wal-mart special to your NY investment banking job or Boston law firm, people might take note. but that's kind of a rarified environment, and quite apart from the contexts we're discussing.
When your lifestyle could easily be misconstrued as that of a child abductor, maybe it's time to rethink some things.
Eh. Modern paranoia isn't very reasonable.
Mr. Rogers acts how we percieve a child abductor would. People giving candy out to children just because, as well. And yet people can be incredibly nice and soft spoken and generous without creepy motives.
LIES!
I reserve the right to assume the guy who simply walks past a public park on his way home and is outwardly friendly is a pedo!
...
This is a different tangent on the same issue but it's also one of my hot buttons >.>
I don't see how dressing up for a Star Wars premier or an Anime con is any different or worse than dressing up for Halloween. Walking down to 7-11 in your Tifa or Vader costume is a little strange, sure. But dressing up in costume for a special event or occasion where that kind of thing is considered to be part of the fun seems pretty logical to me.
Oh, I'll show you why
That's why.
Oh wow, guess we're back to judging and entire group due to it's extremes again.
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
Oh wow, guess we're back to judging and entire group due to it's extremes again.
Business as usual I guess.
What do you mean 'again'? Did we ever stop? This whole thread has been about a kind of prejudice that is still socially acceptable to hold. The last untamed stereotype.
Oh wow, guess we're back to judging and entire group due to it's extremes again.
Business as usual I guess.
What do you mean 'again'? Did we ever stop? This whole thread has been about a kind of prejudice that is still socially acceptable to hold. The last untamed stereotype.
I dunno, I felt like we had a break for a post or two.
Serious question: Is this discussion going to go anywhere or are we just going to keep cycling through people completely polarised on either side of the equation yelling "You're wrong!"
I mean, I can just post that over and over if this is the only place this discussion is going.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
Which is why Socrates wrote: "All things in moderation".
Including dressing up in costumes and pretending to be something else for a time.
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
Man-children don't have the same innocence children do - they understand those social expectations placed on them and then they give it the bird. That bearded guy is dressing in the Sailor Moon outfit because he knows it will shock people and get him attention, which he finds probably finds fun. Like the green leaf absorbing he rays of the sun, he's smiling because he's absorbing all the weirded-out waves other people are generating towards him. He understands. He's doing it anyways.
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
I don't know, I found it particularly interesting that several people on the thread were okay with, say, dressing up for certain occasions and situations, except for dressing up as certain things which in all cases is wrong and should be looked at askance.
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
Which is why Socrates wrote: "All things in moderation".
Including dressing up in costumes and pretending to be something else for a time.
Unless it's a cartoon character or a famous high-school student.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
I don't know, I found it particularly interesting that several people on the thread were okay with, say, dressing up for certain occasions and situations, except for dressing up as certain things which in all cases is wrong and should be looked at askance.
Case in point, no one would dress up as a true Chaos cultist from Warhammer 40k fluff, even for a wargaming convention or for cosplay. It is just not practical or appropriate to show up with very little clothing, spikes in your back and blood all over yourself in any situation.
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
I don't know, I found it particularly interesting that several people on the thread were okay with, say, dressing up for certain occasions and situations, except for dressing up as certain things which in all cases is wrong and should be looked at askance.
Some costumes are more disturbing or offensive than others. If someone showed up for a Halloween party at my house dressed up as a Star Wars Storm Trooper, I'd think nothing of it. If someone showed up wearing a Nazi SS uniform, I'd kick them out of my house.
A 25 year-old woman dressed up like a naughty schoolgirl at an adult party or nightclub is risque, but not offensive or creepy. A 25 year-old guy dressing up like one of the kids from Harry Potter and hanging out with 12 year-olds on opening day for the new movie? Yeah, I'm keeping a close eye on him.
All of this is contextual. Well, except the dude in the Sailor Moon outfit. That's always wrong.
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What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
I'd still be weirded out by that dude, since he's choosing to dress up like a kid. To me, that implies that he sees himself as a child. I can't help but think of Michael Jackson.
For whatever reason, I'd be less concerned if he dressed up like one of the adult characters from the movie.
Modern Man on
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Rigorous Scholarship
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
Or the ones I've experienced personally: some adults hanging out with other adults, some dressed up like characters from Harry Potter (who are 17 at the end of the series, btw, so not exactly children), and no children around, because it's midnight on a weekday?
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
NAMBLA people getting ready to run a train on some poor kids.
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
I'd still be weirded out by that dude, since he's choosing to dress up like a kid. To me, that implies that he sees himself as a child. I can't help but think of Michael Jackson.
For whatever reason, I'd be less concerned if he dressed up like one of the adult characters from the movie.
See, I would find the fixation on the fact that the characters are not 21 or over the strange thing, here.
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
I'd still be weirded out by that dude, since he's choosing to dress up like a kid. To me, that implies that he sees himself as a child. I can't help but think of Michael Jackson.
For whatever reason, I'd be less concerned if he dressed up like one of the adult characters from the movie.
Be less concerned, then, because most of the male HP cosplayers I've seen trend toward Snape or Lupin.
Not that I think dressing like a 17 year old person who's over the age of consent in the UK is in any way perverted anyhow.
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mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
NAMBLA people getting ready to run a train on some poor kids.
It's fucked up, but it's hilarious.
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mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
Or the ones I've experienced personally: some adults hanging out with other adults, some dressed up like characters from Harry Potter (who are 17 at the end of the series, btw, so not exactly children), and no children around, because it's midnight on a weekday?
What about the more likely scene: a 25 year old guy hanging out with other 25 year olds, some of them dressed as kids from Harry Potter--in a crowd that also contains 12 year olds?
Or the ones I've experienced personally: some adults hanging out with other adults, some dressed up like characters from Harry Potter (who are 17 at the end of the series, btw, so not exactly children), and no children around, because it's midnight on a weekday?
The ravages of unemployment.
Huh? I go to work the same day as midnight showings.
In the epilogue of the last book, Harry Potter is an adult with an 11 year old child of his own. Since the reader/viewer follows the dude through so much of his life, for me I don't feel like too weirded out by the idea of anyone any age dressing up as Harry Potter or any of his crew.
Meanwhile, it seems culturally acceptable for crazy costumes and pageantry to exist at annual celebratory events (Halloween, Mardi Gras, Carnival, and parades and festivals of all sorts). Why can't conventions celebrating games/comics/cartoons get lumped in with such things? Why not movie/book premieres? A book or movie can only premiere once, which makes them rarer in a way, than annual events.
This thread has definitely reached its pointless end. On the one side you have judgmental, critical people. On the other, man-children (or the like), who don't actually understand social mores and are thus unable to even see the foundation from which your arguments are made.
This is a poor characterization of the discussion that has actually occurred.
People are using this man-child term to encompass a broad range of people. I play video games almost every night. I own a house, am married (2nd one) have a great, stable job and will probably have a kid some time in the next year. I'm 29.
No one is talking about the fact that american life doesn't prepare you for reality the way it used to. Sure in the 60's and 70's people had kids when they were 21. That's because you could get a good paying job out of highschool. Now you can't even get a decent paying job out of college. I work with people, trying to help them get employment and the world out there sucks right now. There's nothing adult about being overqualified to work at mcDonalds and not having any emploment opportunities in your job field. I didn't get my good job until 3 years ago.
Sure people take escapism over the edge of acceptable behavior. that doesn't mean there isn't a continuum of that behavior: people who indulge their hobbies more than "socially acceptable" but are not irresponsible. Who's looking down on those people>
Like Jeff said, Harry Potter has its own cultural value, and that value is one of being broad fantasy aimed at children, yet many adults enjoy the books without any perspective or irony and obsess about them in dangerous ways.
The Peanuts strip, however, is a benign and globally-beloved comic strip known for its higher-brow commentary on adolescence and existentialism, and a property very few people obsess over, and one certainly not aimed at children. You'd be hardpressed to find anyone under 10 years old who even understands most of the strip. It's actually kind of simplistic and gooseish to assume that just because something is a comic strip it's aimed at kids. Most the best and transcendent comic strips aren't aimed at kids at all, like Calvin & Hobbes, The Boondocks, Bloom County, et al.
I really can't believe more people haven't leapt on this.
So, the comic you enjoy is "globally beloved" and higher brow. But Harry Potter is just for kids but enjoyed by many adults. Obviously this is very diferent from being 'globally beloved' and acceptable in a way I can't fathom. These many adults who enjoy it also enjoy it in dangerous ways apparently.
Similarly, These 'transcendent' comic strips are totally not for kids... theyre for everyone. But Harry Potter is not for everyone.... just for kids but enjoyed by many adults. But not ironically, because god knows that is the only 'socially acceptable' way to enjoy something not for adults only.
I think you may need to question where these qualitative judgements
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What part about a grown adult wearing a costume to celebrate the opening of a children's movie sounds "fun?"
When your lifestyle could easily be misconstrued as that of a child abductor, maybe it's time to rethink some things.
SHIT! We're NERDHIPSTERS!!!!!
beat'd by the same post.
Catholic High School Girl at least has the implied "SENIOR" in it, so that it's at least overtly sexual/slutty in a barely legal sort of way.
Rigorous Scholarship
Neither do I hang out with a bunch of kids when dressed up as Hermione Granger.
I also don't hang out at the book premieres. I mean, there's a whole bunch of assuming going on here, as though there's only one way to cosplay and only one set of people who do it and only one motivation for it.
I actually like school uniforms because I like dressing up. I never had school uniforms as a kid and I think they're nifty. There's no grand scheme behind it. I just like dressing up as things sometimes.
The part where what's fun for some people isn't for others? I'm sorry, there's an objective definition of allowable and non-allowable standards of fun? That we're discussing on a video game forum? This is absurd.
Peee esss, Americans are too hysterical about child abductors, and not everyone who cosplays does so around children. I haven't seen a single child at a midnight showing of a Harry Potter movie to date.
While, again, I agree more or less with your second statement, a $40 suit from Wal-Mart looks like a $40 suit from Wal-Mart. This is fine if you're appearing in court, where a suit is mandatory, and your other wardrobe choice is a $50 shirt from Jinx and ratty jeans; but part of the message that people take away from your clothes has to do with your financial condition and your socioeconomic class. "Well you CHOOSE to wear a shitty suit instead of a $500 pinstripe from Brooks Brothers!"
obsolete signature form
replaced by JPEGs.
Oh, I'll show you why
That's why.
Edit: rather surprised you didn't link Manfaye.
Eh. Modern paranoia isn't very reasonable.
Mr. Rogers acts how we percieve a child abductor would. People giving candy out to children just because, as well. And yet people can be incredibly nice and soft spoken and generous without creepy motives.
most people couldn't really tell the difference between a wal-mart suit and a brooks suit without a pretty close inspection.
and further, the "wearing of the suit" in the contexts we're mentioning doesn't have to do with the expense so much as the willingness to wear a suit.
sure, if you wear a wal-mart special to your NY investment banking job or Boston law firm, people might take note. but that's kind of a rarified environment, and quite apart from the contexts we're discussing.
LIES!
I reserve the right to assume the guy who simply walks past a public park on his way home and is outwardly friendly is a pedo!
...
This is a different tangent on the same issue but it's also one of my hot buttons >.>
Oh wow, guess we're back to judging and entire group due to it's extremes again.
Business as usual I guess.
What do you mean 'again'? Did we ever stop? This whole thread has been about a kind of prejudice that is still socially acceptable to hold. The last untamed stereotype.
I dunno, I felt like we had a break for a post or two.
Serious question: Is this discussion going to go anywhere or are we just going to keep cycling through people completely polarised on either side of the equation yelling "You're wrong!"
I mean, I can just post that over and over if this is the only place this discussion is going.
Which is why Socrates wrote: "All things in moderation".
Including dressing up in costumes and pretending to be something else for a time.
Man-children don't have the same innocence children do - they understand those social expectations placed on them and then they give it the bird. That bearded guy is dressing in the Sailor Moon outfit because he knows it will shock people and get him attention, which he finds probably finds fun. Like the green leaf absorbing he rays of the sun, he's smiling because he's absorbing all the weirded-out waves other people are generating towards him. He understands. He's doing it anyways.
I don't know, I found it particularly interesting that several people on the thread were okay with, say, dressing up for certain occasions and situations, except for dressing up as certain things which in all cases is wrong and should be looked at askance.
Unless it's a cartoon character or a famous high-school student.
Case in point, no one would dress up as a true Chaos cultist from Warhammer 40k fluff, even for a wargaming convention or for cosplay. It is just not practical or appropriate to show up with very little clothing, spikes in your back and blood all over yourself in any situation.
A 25 year-old woman dressed up like a naughty schoolgirl at an adult party or nightclub is risque, but not offensive or creepy. A 25 year-old guy dressing up like one of the kids from Harry Potter and hanging out with 12 year-olds on opening day for the new movie? Yeah, I'm keeping a close eye on him.
All of this is contextual. Well, except the dude in the Sailor Moon outfit. That's always wrong.
Rigorous Scholarship
For whatever reason, I'd be less concerned if he dressed up like one of the adult characters from the movie.
Rigorous Scholarship
Or the ones I've experienced personally: some adults hanging out with other adults, some dressed up like characters from Harry Potter (who are 17 at the end of the series, btw, so not exactly children), and no children around, because it's midnight on a weekday?
NAMBLA people getting ready to run a train on some poor kids.
See, I would find the fixation on the fact that the characters are not 21 or over the strange thing, here.
Be less concerned, then, because most of the male HP cosplayers I've seen trend toward Snape or Lupin.
Not that I think dressing like a 17 year old person who's over the age of consent in the UK is in any way perverted anyhow.
The ravages of unemployment.
Huh? I go to work the same day as midnight showings.
Meanwhile, it seems culturally acceptable for crazy costumes and pageantry to exist at annual celebratory events (Halloween, Mardi Gras, Carnival, and parades and festivals of all sorts). Why can't conventions celebrating games/comics/cartoons get lumped in with such things? Why not movie/book premieres? A book or movie can only premiere once, which makes them rarer in a way, than annual events.
No one is talking about the fact that american life doesn't prepare you for reality the way it used to. Sure in the 60's and 70's people had kids when they were 21. That's because you could get a good paying job out of highschool. Now you can't even get a decent paying job out of college. I work with people, trying to help them get employment and the world out there sucks right now. There's nothing adult about being overqualified to work at mcDonalds and not having any emploment opportunities in your job field. I didn't get my good job until 3 years ago.
Sure people take escapism over the edge of acceptable behavior. that doesn't mean there isn't a continuum of that behavior: people who indulge their hobbies more than "socially acceptable" but are not irresponsible. Who's looking down on those people>
I really can't believe more people haven't leapt on this.
So, the comic you enjoy is "globally beloved" and higher brow. But Harry Potter is just for kids but enjoyed by many adults. Obviously this is very diferent from being 'globally beloved' and acceptable in a way I can't fathom. These many adults who enjoy it also enjoy it in dangerous ways apparently.
Similarly, These 'transcendent' comic strips are totally not for kids... theyre for everyone. But Harry Potter is not for everyone.... just for kids but enjoyed by many adults. But not ironically, because god knows that is the only 'socially acceptable' way to enjoy something not for adults only.
I think you may need to question where these qualitative judgements