Shopping for women’s and men’s costumes are significantly different experiences. While men have the clear path to find their desired look, women have two choices: either be sexy, or covered head to toe. There is no in between.
And when I say “sexy”, I mean the skin clinging, cleavage baring, midriff showing and mini skirt wearing costumes sold in most party stores and online. This year, Party City’s top three picks are the Adult American Dream Costume, Adult Catwoman and the Adult Batwoman Costume.
Kieran Beckford, Georgia State journalism student, said she thinks women should seize the moment and wear what they want since it’s Halloween season.
“This is the one time in the year that you can dress up and be something you are not, or someone you are not for the rest of the year, like your alter ego,” she said. “And if a female feels empowered by putting on a provocative costume and it is something she is not used to doing in everyday life, then good for her.”
And costume companies are capitalizing on women’s desire to look sexy for the night. Harris Poll found in 2010 that 71 percent of women plan ahead when picking out their costume for Halloween. The CEO of Yandy.com, Chad Horstman, offers more than 4,000 costumes to users, but the best sellers are sexier outfits, according to CNBC. He sells 1,000 to 2,000 of those costumes.
“The way we think about it is… if a girl walks into a party, are people going to know what she is?” he said to CNBC. “And step two… if she enters a costume contest, does she have a chance at winning?”
While working at ACME Costumes, Vee McConnell, Georgia State women gender studies student, has seen how many women’s costumes are “the prepackaged bra” and skirt.
“It was like sexy traffic guard, sexy nurse, sexy police officer,” she said. “It would be such a different deal if it wasn’t so expected.”
She said she thinks it’s “ok” to show your body if you want, but the choice is becoming obligatory.
“Women are expected to look pleasing to men,” she said. “There is pressure to wear those costumes in order to be sexy, because you are supposed to be sexy on Halloween… it’s like, how dare a woman dress up like an ugly witch or something.”
Women are driving the sales of costumes every Halloween. Consumers are expected to spend $1.2 billion on costumes this year, according to the National Retail Foundation 2015 Consumer Spending Survey.
Jessica Cabrera, Georgia State student, said sexy costumes are common in college, and “if you got it, flaunt it.”
“We shouldn’t be oppressed by all of society’s imagery of women and think that we can’t wear stuff like that just because we look a certain type of way and are asking for certain things that we are not,” she said.
She said she owns an Alice costume that could be perceived as “sexy” depending on how she wears it.
“If I don’t wear it with tights that’s a really short dress. Put on some heels, sexy outfit,” she said.
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