When I was five years old, my mom bought me the prettiest Tinker Bell costume for Halloween. Back then, the perfect costume usually consisted of an absurd amount of sequins or even the biggest tiara to complete the dreamiest princess ensemble. But even then, it was simple and easy to find the right costume. Looking back today, I realize how far we, as a culture and society, have strayed from these simple and innocent Halloween traditions.
When trying to piece together a costume for this year’s Hallows’ Eve, I looked through Pinterest for inspiration. I typed in “girl Halloween costume college.” The results were all pictures of girls in risqué costumes or outfits.
There’s an iconic scene in Mean Girls where Cady says, “In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In girl world, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it.”
I had never realized just how spot-on this could be until now.
My problem isn’t with girls dressing in skimpy clothing and wanting to feel sexy. Not at all—in fact, I applaud that. But why has this become the norm? If anything, I feel girls dress like this every weekend. When did Halloween become less about the spooks and more about the looks?
Courtesy: New York Post
I recently went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando with my roommate, and I told her that that night would feel more like Halloween than Halloween night itself. Why? There was never a single moment where I felt pressured or worried about how I looked or what I was wearing. On the contrary, it was all about being scared and letting out a good blood-curdling scream every now and again.
When searching through women’s costumes at stores, there would come a point where all the labels seemed to read ”sexy nurse,” or “sexy firefighter,” or anything with the word “sexy” put in front.
I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I think this is a topic that never seems to be addressed and lingers in conversation. We deserve to feel confident and beautiful, but where do we draw the line? Nowadays we are enraged by the sexist portrayal of women as sexual figures in media but how can we expect to change that image if we don’t begin demonstrating it?
Courtesy: Cosmopolitan
Halloween is a night to dress up and be someone or something you’re not, whether that’s a pirate, a princess or a Playboy bunny. I just think that with the issues surrounding the feminine community and the female empowerment movement, this is a topic that feeds the conversation about these issues. We want to feel beautiful and sexy, but we want to be taken seriously. I, personally, thought Halloween could be one night of the year where you shouldn’t feel pressured to look your best. If anything, Halloween is a chance for you to look your absolute worst and get away with it. Maybe we could all take a page out of Cady’s book and dress up as the ex-wife every now and again and leave the lingerie and animal ears to the Plastics.
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