With the spooky holiday rapidly approaching, you’re probably beginning to plan out what your impressive ensemble will be this year. What makes Halloween so fun and enticing is the creative opportunity it offers. For one night, you can masquerade as whoever or whatever your heart desires. While there are no right answers in terms of costumes, there are some wrong ones.
When given this kind of creative freedom, people tend to push their limits, especially ethical limits. Many Halloween costumes that exist on the market are insensitive, trivializing, and downright insulting to marginalized groups. The most obvious examples are the costumes that commodify and sexualize different cultures.
For example, this risqué costume just screams “problematic”. The outfit includes a war bonnet, which was only worn by male leaders of tribes in the Great Plains regions, yet here it is marketed as a women’s generic “Native American” costume.
This outfit is supposed to represent a geisha, a traditional Japanese female entertainer. In reality, a geisha’s outfit looks nothing similar to this, and would never be so revealing. I guarantee that the people who buy and wear this costume have no idea what a geisha is, where they practice, or what they practice. Geishas actually go through extensive training and learn skills such as instrument-playing, calligraphy, dancing, and singing. This is a lazy depiction of the profession and also a blatant example of Orientalism.
Every year, the Day of the Dead is celebrated by Mexicans and those with Mexican ancestry living in other countries. The purpose of the holiday is to honor and remember deceased loved ones. People sometimes paint their faces to resemble skulls and dress in traditional attire, but it is nothing like what is pictured above, a “Sugar Skull Costume”. The holiday is extremely sacred and important to those who take part in it and watering it down to a tutu and tights is incredibly disrespectful.
In all of the aforementioned costumes, hyper-sexualization is present. This minimizes the actual cultural significance of traditional Indigenous dress, real geishas, and the Day of the Dead.
The costumes also portray oppressed cultures in Western society, and they do so on white models only. Cultures are not costumes that can be tried on by white people for a day. What these costumes cannot depict is the discrimination faced by Indigenous people, Japanese people, and Mexican people every day in America.
Even though your intentions may be benign, dressing in a culturally insensitive way this Halloween can hurt your friends and others around you. There are plenty of other non-offensive options when it comes to costumes. This great holiday comes with a great responsibility, and that involves not being a jerk. Ultimately, have fun and be creative, but don’t be careless.