Making Sure You’re Comfortable is The Priority
As we get closer to Halloween, it’s the most exciting – and troubling – time for us girls: it’s time to come up with your costume for Halloween. It’s a night full of good times and parties, but there’s an infinite amount of costume ideas and even more ways to execute it. There’s a lot of decisions to be made like: are you going with a group and doing a group costume? Are you going solo and stealing the show? Are you even going out because watching Hocus Pocus alone in bed sounds like exactly what you need right now?
No matter what you choose, the most important thing to remember is that you’re happy with yourself and you’re comfortable with everything you’re doing. There’s a lot of negativity when it comes to Halloween costumes and women, unfortunately for all of us, and sometimes that can get the better of us. There are a lot of problems like making sure you aren’t coming off as too provocative, but also making sure you aren’t playing things too safe and making sure you’re still cute. Why is that?
Let’s think about the reason for these problems – the grasp that men’s opinions have on society. It can be suffocating when it comes to everyday things and needing to remind ourselves that you are your own person and it doesn’t matter what that guy thinks about you. As great as that energy is, it can be difficult to keep that same energy when there is such a large stigma around women dressing up for men for Halloween instead of dressing up for themselves.
When you go to the store and you look at costumes, what do you see? For the sake of argument, let’s look at Spirit Halloween. When you go on their site and you look “men Halloween costume”, you’re shown images of men in various costumes but there’s a consistent thing throughout: none of them are deemed overly “sexy” and not a lot of skin is showing. When you look up “women Halloween costume”, you’re shown some costumes that are covering and appropriate, but you also see a lot of short dresses and overly sexual costumes that ride the fine line of offensive (I’m looking at you slutty nun).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for getting dressed up and looking good for Halloween. My friends and I are going for a hotter costume this year. However, the biggest thing to remember is that you’re comfortable with yourself throughout all of this. At the end of the day, you should be picking out a costume that you want to wear and not something you felt pressured into because of everyone else showing skin. Party or not, you don’t need to impress anyone. Halloween is a fun day filled with spooky things and fun costume parties, and it should be just that: fun.
Make sure this year, you feel your best. If you want to get that one guy’s attention from across the party, be bold, do you and make sure you’re happy with everything. If you want to go as something, absolutely go for it and kill it because you’re happy and that makes you look fantastic. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t wear what you want for Halloween; they aren’t you and they don’t know what you’re comfortable with or what you feel good in. This year is all about how absolutely stunning you’re going to look because this year’s costume is empowerment for us all.
I know it can be difficult when so many images are shown to us of overly sexualized women and the pressure that can put on you because you don’t always want to be sexual and sometimes you just want to go as a zombie vacation dad like I did last year. It’s a lot to overcome and get past, but once you do it opens a world of possibilities for you because you can literally be anything you can think of. You aren’t bound to the typical costumes of tight clothes with lots of skin because some guy thought a woman would look sexy in that, and you can truly go for the look that best suits you for whatever it is you’re doing this year. And remember: making sure you’re comfortable is the priority.