What do fruits and vegetables, the cast of South Park, and every Disney princess have in common? They can all be seen on Halloween, walking around a college campus and wearing a corset. College Halloween, as it is today, is incomplete without the infamous Amazon corset. And in recent years, this simple piece of clothing has had the internet up in arms.
A major point that gets brought up regarding these costumes is that they are too revealing, and that they are not appropriate for the holiday. I am here to tell you that if getting college kids to wear more clothing on Halloween is the hill you want to die on, it will be over pretty quickly. The major premise of this argument is that the purpose of Halloween is to dress up in scary costumes and eat candy. I disagree. The most beautiful part of Halloween is how it grows with you. As a kid, you go trick-or-treating and trade candy with friends. As a grown adult, you pass candy out at the door and decorate. And in college, you dress up and go out. College students in revealing clothes are not interrupting kids enjoying Halloween; they are just doing it in a different way. Besides, trick-or-treating is over well before anyone has even left their dorm.
Another issue that comes up is the fact that these costumes are “uncreative”. I will admit, they are oftentimes quite conceptual, but some of the most creative costumes I have ever seen were based on this one clothing item. Halloween is not about having the most accurate or scary costume; it is about having fun. If your idea of fun is spending months working on the perfect costume, more power to you, but not everyone has the time or money to do that. Making a DIY costume is fun, and if a corset is part of that, so be it.
While simply wearing a corset is not a moral issue, buying one can be. Most of these corsets are bought from mass retailer corporations like Amazon or Shein, both of which have come under fire in recent years due to questionable environmental and employment practices. The best way I have found to avoid this is to shop second-hand. This does not only work for corsets; this year I bought most of my costume pieces on Depop, which saved me a lot of money as well.
Overall, the trick to enjoying Halloween is the trick to enjoying everyday life: wear what you want, and let others do the same. I will be wearing a corset, and rest assured that I can still wear just as much fake blood as anyone else can.