Is escaping from reality helping or damaging us? In this insight episode, we listen to Australians who try to find identity and liberation in escapism, and we ask if this is good. Look at 8.30 PM (AES) on Tuesday, April 15 in SBS or Live On .
During the last four years, Matthew Stewart has worked as a master school teacher. But when night comes, he is a professional professional than life called ‘Big Fudge’.
Wrestling has helped Matthew access different parts of his identity.
“I would definitely say that I am a quiet person; I am a bit introverted. But there are parts of my personality that are very noisy, which are very silly, which are very colorful,” he told Insight.
“I can enter a world and I can become someone else completely. And that fills me with confidence, trust I could not have in my daily life.”
Matthew says that sometimes it is difficult for him to navigate his change between the two very different worlds of teaching and professional struggle. Fountain: Supplied
Matthew has been obsessed with wrestling since he began to see him as a child. He says he provides a valuable sense of escapism for both artists and audience.
“They come there to encourage the good ones, they come there to boo the bad guys,” Matthew said. “They are part of those moments with us. They are part of our trip.”
He says that being a Pro-Wrestler can be physically and emotionally challenging, but the stimulating escape is worth it, and gives him something to expect.
“When I wear that mask, I can become anyone who wants to be … I couldn’t care less what people think. I am completely at the time. I let go. I can be as dumb, as ridiculous as I want to be.
“This is the way I had to be happy, and I am really happy right now.”
‘The trust to find who it was’
Emma Baird grew in Perth during the 1990s, an environment that says it could be uncomfortable for different creative people like her. She accredits the Gothic scene for saving her life.
“I am very pale leather, and I was a small child of very strange ginger. I did not fit the invoice because I was a normal person of Western Australia. I did not like the sun. I did not like to surf,” he told Insight.
“I never felt that I had that wonderful thing that so many people have where they can fit in a crowd immediately. So I went to look for those who were more welcoming, and I went to look for rare children and I was very, very fortunate. I found my rare people.”
Emma has found comfort in the Gothic scene. Fountain: Supplied
Emma began to get into the Gothic subculture after a cousin gave her some music tapes, presenting her to bands like The Cure and the sisters of mercy.
The community provided Emma a sense of belonging and permission to embrace their true being.
“I was confident to find who I was. He gave me a way to explore the limits of my personality that I would not have done otherwise if I had tried to fit into the society in which they had given me or born,” he said.
“It was having my Gothic community and having friends who understood what strength gave me to continue, and have opportunities to go and experiment to be my true self gave me true happiness.”
Living to the fullest
Bridget Hallam has found its escape through motorcycles.
“My life before motorcycles was probably very similar to many people. I had young children, single mother, working, very busy and there was really no time to escape,” he said.
Bridget says that when he met his partner, Alan, and began to ride motorcycles together, he allowed him to escape from a difficult time.
“Motorcycling feels really different from anything you have done before, because you can literally throw your leg on your bicycle, point the handlebar on the horizon and go anywhere in the world.”
Bridget and Alan have been on three trips to Europe, where they have mounted their bicycles for six months at the same time.
When Bridget is on his motorcycle, he feels escaping the routine of everyday life. Fountain: Supplied / Visceral_visuals
She describes him how to escape the routine of everyday life.
“It’s about escaping adventure, to experience things that make me feel alive,” he said.
“I don’t want to be at home taking care of Petunias. I want to live life and that’s what motorcycles mean to me.
“Escapism really helps me to live life to the fullest.”
‘Things about ourselves that we really don’t know’
Davide Orazi is an associate professor of marketing at Monash University who studies escapism. He says it is a way of distracting us from a reality that can feel “scary, painful or unsatisfactory.”
“What we want to get is a moment of rest, breathing, to restore these resources that stressors exhaust,” he said.
“We are escaping something unpleasant to something that is comforting or inspiring, or something boring to the exciting.”
Many of us found to escape in hobbies, books or exotic trips. Others like to assume a completely new identity.
Davide has also been a live action role player (Larper) for 21 years.
LARP is an immersive activity where players physically represent characters in a fictional environment, combining elements of theater, storytelling and improvisation.
“It’s a tornado of emotions; it is very visceral,” he said.
Davide says that incorporating different characters can reveal unknown aspects of our identities, helping us learn more about ourselves. Fountain: Supplied
Davide says that the process of embodying different characters can reveal unknown aspects of their own identity, offering a unique form of self -discovery.
“Every time you are interpreting a different character, which exposes you to situations to which you do not have access in normal life.”
“There are many things about ourselves that we really don’t know, and we don’t have the opportunity to know until we immerse ourselves in those contexts.”
Changing between two worlds
Davide says that when he returns to the reality of an intense LARP, he is forced to reconcile what he has learned about himself.
“When you return to your daily life, there is this bleeding among the worlds you have to handle,” he said.
“You have to negotiate what you have discovered about yourself. You have to deal with all the intense emotions attached to those people and places that you have met and discovered while involving yourself in the extraordinary.
“And that requires a lot of thought, many resources.”
Emma says that it is difficult to readjust normal life after a great Gothic event such as Whitby Goth Weekend, one of the world’s greatest gothic events that takes place biannually in the United Kingdom.
“You have this type of comedown later, where you have been in the apogee of your identity … that kind of mourning for that complete sense of your identity.
“That can be very difficult.”
Matthew also likes to keep his alternative identity secret, often choosing not telling people who is a fighter.
“The curious thing about the trial is that, when I wear that mask, I couldn’t care less what people think. I am completely at the time. I let go. I can be as dumb, as ridiculous as I want to be, and I am not ashamed.
“[But] When my mask took away, sometimes a little of that shame can get me back. And I have those human moments in which I am a bit shy about it. “
But on the positive side, he says that Wrestling has helped him understand how to act at an audience, which has helped him in the classroom.
He believes that our daily life is full of actions.
“A performance could simply meet a stranger and strengthen his hand and smiling. There are so many performative elements for every day of our lives,” he said.
“I think most people use masks. In a sense, we are all acting for others.”
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