Halloween is my favorite holiday. For months, I considered and planned, meticulously ordering and forming the costumes I would wear. To get in the spirit of the season, I watched countless horror movies and rewatched sections of “American Horror Story,” a yearly ritual I undergo.
For me, the spooky vibes and fun costumes are the best part of the holiday. I could take or leave the partying and late nights. In high school, I was so busy that I did not even dress up for the last two years. Coming to college last year, I was so excited to take part in the season’s festivities, and I have enjoyed my two Halloweens in St. Louis.
Due to my love of the season, I was extremely annoyed this October by the prevalent online policing of women’s clothing choices in relation to the holiday.
As postulated by Cady, the protagonist in the cult classic film beloved by female viewers, “Mean Girls,” “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Despite this valuable lesson being highlighted to our generation in this iconic film, it is clear, coming from the discourse on social media, that its message has not landed.
Holiday-related misogyny is prolific across the internet. Cries to “stop making Halloween sexy” are increasing, with many young people asking their peers to make the holiday “scary again.” But these comments are never directed at men’s costumes, which often exclude shirts or outline abdominal muscles.
The most common item under this puritanical faction-scrutiny regime is the corset. This staple fits well with any costume, staying true to the colors the character wears while incorporating cute, flattering features. These staples are commonly paired with mini-skirts to create character costumes like “The Three Musketeers” or “Disney Princesses.” Commenters and creators argue that these costumes are lazy and overwhelmingly similar. But there is a clear reason they are similar, as they align with current fashion trends and are constructed to make the wearer feel confident and pretty. And what could be more important when determining an outfit? Dressing up is for you, not others.
Additional criticisms of these costumes are that they are not accurate, but when have Halloween costumes ever adhered to original character design? Homemade costumes often capture the general premise of a character’s composition or the colors they wear, sacrificing accuracy for convenience. These outfits are praised as innovative rather than lazy. Hypocritically, these costumes are not mocked for their inaccuracy but heralded for their creativity.
I ask the creators, commenters and viewers who launch these sentiments one question: Do you actually care that these girls’ costumes are not “scary” or “accurate,” or are you more concerned with the amount of skin they are showing? Because, frankly, Halloween has never been about accuracy or fright. It is ultimately a night to have fun and to distract yourself from your worries with cheap thrills and connect with those you care about most — a designated break from the monotony of the work or school week.
Ultimately, these costumes are critiqued because society is obsessed with regulating women’s bodies and relating them to antiquated male ownership through marital expectations. Due to Christianity’s grasp on Western standards of modesty, women’s clothing choices are often equated with their morality. More sinisterly, many see partnership through marriage as an act of possessing another rather than joining with another person in a loving, equal relationship.
This antiquated belief system is exemplified by another recent trend. Around the holiday, videos of women announcing that this Halloween they are “staying in because I am somebody’s future wife” flooded the algorithm. This sentiment expresses their belief that they owe their future partner an explanation for their current decisions and assumes their future husband would be upset with them for dressing up or showing skin. They are indirectly critiquing women who choose to go out as less loyal to their potential partners.
This trend is simply more messaging that shames women for dressing up and assumes they are only doing so for male attention, rather than for themselves. These clips are a vehicle for these women to differentiate themselves from those who dress up and show some skin, a clear attempt to glean praise from men who agree, and to express their own purity, rooted in their value of Christian standards for modesty and marriage.
This outdated sentiment is based on Biblical teaching. In Ephesians Chapter 5, Paul the Apostle, one of Jesus’ most prolific followers, declares “wives should be subordinate to their husbands.” As Gen Z has taken a surprisingly right-wing religious shift, it is no surprise that viral sentiments are being propagated and steered by Christian conservative influencers rather than secular ones, as has been common in the digital age.
There is nothing wrong with staying in for Halloween. But there is something bad about shaming other women for their free decisions when you feel trapped by your own religion to not follow their footsteps. That is your decision, and others should not be reprimanded for making a different one. What is worst of all is basing your decisions on what your future partner may potentially think.
Sentiments like this shame women who enjoy their lives, wearing what they want and participating in the experiences their community offers. The harmful idea that women should not go out in consideration for their future partner promotes isolation, an ever-increasing problem, which contributes to mental health struggles. Through this sentiment, women are placing the opinion of their future husband on how they dress up for a night out in their 20s above their enjoyment of youth. Creators participating in this trend are centering men in their considerations rather than seeing themselves as individuals unbound to male opinions.
Women’s joy is constantly policed. Both men and women constantly assume that women’s actions are performed in service of the male gaze. People guess that because you are wearing a “slutty” outfit for Halloween, you are doing so for male attention. But what if you have absolutely no interest in male attention?
Existing in this male-centered society as a queer woman is a unique position, because I am definitely not dressing up in what could be considered a “slutty” outfit in hopes of male validation. I am doing it so I feel good about myself and so I can take cute pictures, most definitely not for any of the men around me. Yet society automatically assumes that men are in consideration when women choose how to present themselves.
It is clear through the political and social discourse in our country that we are rejecting the small social progress we have made towards gender equality. Sexism is becoming more and more normalized. As women, we must join together and agree not to let men or those seeking their validation dim the freedom and vibrance of our youth.