I’ll just get straight to the point: me and Halloween? We don’t get along. When I was young, the scary masks, loud noises, and creepy spiders were too much for my poor little heart to handle. Eventually, I got over most of those fears and actually began enjoying the holiday! As I got older, I became more and more excited about the idea of cuddling up to someone cute and watching scary movies (all the while using the jump scares as an excuse to move closer to them). Unfortunately, my Halloween schemes have not been successful thus far, and I’ve decided that Halloween is just not for me—although it boils down to a bit more than my lack of a love life.
I’ve never understood why people choose a culture to be a costume. Cultural appropriation is the “unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society”. So as you can see, it’s pretty easy to understand that some costumes just shouldn’t be used. It’s 2021, and despite all the infographics that are posted about NOT doing such an awful thing, someone always decides that they need to be “edgy” and appropriate someone else’s cultural identity. I mean…really? There are so many more appropriate options, so there is absolutely no reason why anyone would need to use this as a costume. For anyone that needs to hear it again: SOMEONE ELSE’S CULTURE IS NOT YOUR COSTUME. That’s part of the reason that I dislike Halloween so much; it’s one of the few holidays that people use as an excuse to be blatantly and abundantly racist. Especially as a white individual who, because of my position in society, will never experience the racism that others will, I feel that it’s incredibly important to highlight the sickening environment that “edgy” individuals thrive off of. It’s hard to like and enjoy Halloween when this is the way in which people choose to behave.
Since I started university, I’ve noticed that a lot of people use Halloween as an excuse to be disrespectful to others in their community. I get that it’s “trick” or treat, but I don’t really feel that smashing pumpkins, egging homes, and drunkenly screaming at one in the morning in a residential area counts as a “trick”. Once again, I think that a lot of people want to “fit in”, but you can have fun and drink (responsibly and safely!) inside your own house, without causing problems for the other people in your neighbourhood! There’s no reason to be disrespectful to the families and other people who aren’t participating. I really don’t like that this is what the “spirit” of Halloween boils down to. It’s not that I don’t like partying or having fun, but honestly, it’s just immature to do these sorts of things. How can you have fun on a night when people strive to be so awful to each other?
I’ve also never understood the sexualization of women’s and femme Halloween costumes. Sexualization is seeing someone or something in sexual terms unnecessarily and in a disapproving way (Cambridge Dictionary). It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good dressing up once in a while, it’s just that these can sometimes be the only costumes available to choose from. You have to be a “sexy” devil or a “sexy” nurse. It’s also hard to feel confident if you don’t choose a sexy costume when everyone else does, because in some weird way, it makes you feel less womanly. This year, I wanted to be Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, but when I was looking up inspiration, the only girl’s costumes I could find were of a “sexy” Patrick Bateman. He’s a psychopath—I want to look scary! I really have no problem with women choosing to dress up in sexy costumes, I just think it’s important to consider why these costumes are being made in the first place. As I mentioned, it’s sometimes hard to feel confident when you are wearing a “regular” costume when everyone else around you looks great in their sexy costumes (I’ve especially noticed this in university). Again, I love seeing the fun and flirty costumes that feminine people come up with, but what’s wrong with being a scary devil as well? People should feel confident in whatever they choose to wear for Halloween, whether it’s sexy or not, and sexy costumes shouldn’t be the expectation for women’s costumes. There needs to be a choice for women and femme people, just as there is for masculine costumes.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m not a huge fan of scary things. I just don’t understand why anyone wants to be scared to go to sleep at night. I enjoy some Halloween movies (Ever seen Scooby Doo? A true classic), but movies like The Conjuring are just creepy and unappealing to me—even if I had someone to cuddle into! They’re gory and haunting and just make my bones crawl. How do people do it?! Halloween is all about being scared, but I—and I’m sure others—prefer not to be terrified out of our skins. When I was six, I went to a children’s Halloween maze in the local arena. When my dad and I got inside, it was dark and there were glow-in-the-dark clowns with chainsaws. Needless to say, that night solidified my fear of both mazes and clowns. Fun right? That was also the day that I realized that I definitely preferred Christmas to Halloween.
I’ve provided several reasons that Halloween isn’t that great of a holiday, but I’m not going to judge you if you like being scared or dressing up in certain costumes. I just personally prefer not to do those things. People who like Halloween are very passionate about the holiday, and so I don’t really expect this to have changed anyone’s opinion, but I hope that maybe people will think more critically about the actions they choose to take on the holiday. As always, it’s important to be safe and respectful!
Sources:
“Cultural Appropriation.” Oxford Languages. https://www.google.com/search?q=cultural+appropriation+definition&oq=cultural+appropriation&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i64j0i131i433i512j5j5i44l4.9758j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
“Sexualization.” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sexualization.