Miranda: “Alright, what do they got? Witch and sexy kitten. That’s it. The only two choices for women, witch and sexy kitten.”
Carrie: “Oh, you just said a mouthful there, sister.”
Once again, Miss Carrie Bradshaw has unknowingly fed us a pearl of wisdom, this time on the importance of female empowerment (all while casually shopping at a local convenience store, but we don’t question it; it’s the power of the Bradshaw).
Sexy kitten, sexy nurse, sexy school teacher, sexy superhero. It seems that no matter what profession women decide to emulate in their Halloween costume that year, they’re met with a barrage of images telling them that their believability and acceptability in that role is entirely dependent on whether or not they can do it all while looking sexy.
If one were to type “men’s costumes” into Google images, while they could definitely make the argument that some of these costumes are also highly sexualized, most of the first few images that come up depict the wearers in powerful, confident poses, and more often than not, the men are fully-clothed.
Yet by adding just two letters to the same search, we get a very different view of the costume options available to women, and the implications these options hold for women on a broader scale.
These images are some of the first listed under ‘women’s costumes’ on Google, all without including the terms ‘sexy’ or ‘naughty’ (a problematic term in itself) in the search.
The inherent danger in this argument lies in its potential to discourage women from being confident and secure in their bodies and being able to assert their sexuality in the same way that men can. While bearing this distinction in mind, we should be taking issue with the fact that women are often forced over the line between being sexy and being sexualized, simply because they’re given no other option than to dress sexily.
The problem therein isn’t that these kinds of options are available to us, but that too often these are the only options available to us.
So this Halloween, Collegiettes, dress up, be creative, be fun, be scary, be sexy! Be whatever it is that you want to be. But don’t allow yourself to be limited by the idea that a sexy doctor, athlete, or Game of Thrones character, is all that you can or should be.
Happy Halloween, ladies!