Halloween is great time to dress up and have fun. However, there are a few costumes you should always avoid. Here are a few:
1. Clown
Given all of the frightening clown-sighting reports that have been popping up in the media recently, some people are now genuinely scared for their safety and that of their children. Clowns are historically not well-liked by adults and children alike, but now the fear is much more rational. It would be smart to not dress as a clown, at least this year. There are plenty of other ways to scare people this Halloween that don’t run the risk of someone calling the police on you because they think you might be a kidnapper.
2. Harambe
For the love of God, leave the poor gorilla alone. Harambe was shot dead in May after he dragged around a 3-year-old boy who had fallen into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. Zoo staff shot Harambe because they had to, not because they wanted to. He was a beloved inhabitant of the Cincinnati Zoo and his loss was hard on the staff, who have expressed their dislike of all the Harambe jokes and memes that began circulating around the internet after the incident and are still absurdly prevalent now. They make light of a tragedy, and in one case, a Harambe meme was even used in a racist Twitter attack on black actress Leslie Jones. Just let Harambe rest already.
3. Native American
Native Americans have been in the Americas much longer than the rest of us, and yet when settlers from Europe arrived, they strutted around like they owned the place and killed about 95% of the native population in the following years through violence and the introduction of new diseases (like smallpox). We continued to treat Native Americans horribly into the present—think about the Trail of Tears, the Wounded Knee massacre, reservations and now the government’s insistence on installing the Dakota Access Pipeline despite objections from the indigenous people in the area. It isn’t okay to just take the “fun” elements of Native American culture—the headdresses, face paint, etc.—and gloss over the 500 years of oppression natives have faced for having a different appearance and culture.
4. Sugar Skull
You’ve probably seen them before: ornate skulls adorning people’s faces and costumes around Halloween season. Sure, they’re pretty, but these “sugar skulls” (or calaveras, as they are called in Spanish) are actually an important part of the sacred holiday “Día de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead), which originated in Mexico with the Aztecs but has spread to other Latin American countries, as well. For people whose culture observes Día de los Muertos, the two-day holiday is not a highly commercialized excuse to dress up and get drunk (or overloaded on sugar, for those who are underage) like Halloween. Instead, it’s a period of remembrance to honor deceased loved ones with altars, prayers and offerings, including calaveras. Sugar skulls worn by those who are not Latino take away from the true meaning of the holiday, which is not, as some people say, “Mexican Halloween”.
5. Blackface, Yellowface, etc.
People of color have been oppressed and discriminated against because of their race for ages. Simply put, there is nothing funny about making a mockery of the racial identities that many people struggle to embrace after centuries of institutionalized degradation.
6. The Mexican
Not all Mexicans wear sombreros and ponchos, play maracas and mariachi music, drink tequila and/or engage in acts of crime and violence. Commercializing a stereotyped caricature of a culture only adds to the culture’s marginalization.
7. Illegal Alien
Donald Trump’s campaign has already fanned the flames of xenophobia in the U.S. more than enough—even if you are “just trying to be funny” by wearing an “illegal alien” costume (yes, there are costumes out there consisting of an orange jumpsuit marked “Illegal Alien”, an alien mask and a green card), you are actually making things a lot worse by portraying immigrants, particularly those from Latin America and the Middle East, as scary and sinister.
8. Costumes that mock religious figures
This is sort of like dressing up as a Mexican—it turns a culture into a caricature and does nothing to further real understanding of religious groups, especially when done in mockery of religions that are frequently targeted and/or misunderstood, such as Judaism and Islam.
9. Fat Suit
Wearing one of those ridiculous fat suits for a Halloween costume helps spread the (wrong) idea that obesity and/or being “overweight” or plus-sized are reasons for shame. In some cases, there is nothing a person can do about their weight and body shape, and even if there is, there is no one perfect body type and people of all sizes should be accepted and embraced as the beautiful human beings they are.
10. Geisha
This one reduces Japanese culture down to an incredibly inaccurate portrayal. The western perception of Asian women as submissive and man-worshipping, the message given by the geisha costume, is hugely misinformed and only helps to put Asian women into a stereotyped box.
11. “Tranny Granny”
This and those Caitlyn Jenner costumes—not cool at all. It’s a well-known fact that many transgender and genderqueer people struggle hard to find acceptance for their identities among family, friends, religious group and community members, etc., which can take a disastrous toll on their mental health. A 2016 study at the University of California Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco revealed that 4 in 10 of the young transgender women studied had mental health problems and/or substance dependence disorders, over one-third had a history of depression and 1 in 5 had attempted suicide in the month before the survey was taken. Trans and genderqueer people need to see that their identities are accepted and taken seriously, which is exactly the opposite of the message these transgender mockery costumes send out.
12. Nazi
It’s common knowledge that the Nazis killed about 6 million Jews, plus a large number of other minorities, during World War II. It should also be common knowledge that it is incredibly insensitive to abuse one’s American free speech rights to promote, even in jest, the group that carried out one of the world’s most notorious genocides. It sends shivers down my spine knowing that in 2016, 70 years after the atrocities of the Holocaust, some people still think it’s okay to dress up as Hitler and his accomplices for Halloween. This is rare, yes, but it needs to be said.
13. Mental institution inmate
If you’ve seen Season 2 of “American Horror Story”, you will hopefully have an even better understanding of why donning an unkempt wig, a “crazy” mask or makeup and a (sometimes blood-stained) straitjacket for Halloween is just plain wrong. The straitjacket and disheveled appearance are hallmarks of the atrocities and neglect committed in mental institutions of the past, like Briarcliff Manor in “AHS”. It’s not okay to glorify the dark history of commitment to psychiatric units, which is made even worse by wearing a bloody straitjacket, something suggesting that psychiatric/mentally ill patients are all serial killers or violent in some way.
Photo Credits: Cover, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
