If you search “female Halloween costumes” on Amazon, the search bar will drop down a few auto-fill options, the top three of which are “female Halloween costumes adult”, “female Halloween costumes adult sexy”, and “female Halloween costumes sexy”. Two of the three options include the word “sexy” – I think this hints at what the female population searches for in Halloween costumes. The sexy get-ups on Amazon (and other online stores) tend to barely cover both butt cheeks while accentuating the curves of the models displaying them, and range from “sexy astronaut” to “sexy shark” (who knew sharks could be sexy?) and everything in between.
All of this is not to say that the purchase or construction of sexy costumes is shameful or unhealthy in any way. Quite the opposite – I hope that women have the confidence to wear whatever costumes they desire, whether they display cleavage or not. I was a “sexy” meth cook from Breaking Bad last year (in a yellow hazmat suit with the leg portion cut off to mimic a t-shirt dress, high socks, and heeled boots), and I have no qualms about it. I simply wonder what the appeal of these costumes is from the female perspective, and what implications the sexuality of certain figures/characters through Halloween costumes has within general human psychology and modern feminism.
A Few Perspectives:
In practice, we tend to conflate many forms of provocative dress with female empowerment (take, for instance, protests such as the SlutWalk). However, the appeal of sexy Halloween costumes is a bit more nuanced. In my conversations with women on campus, it’s become clear to me that the attraction to sexy Halloween costumes is built upon an incredible variety of motives.
Some of these motives are based in Halloween’s one-day-a-year nature. Alison E., a sophomore at the U of M, makes an interesting point that, “Halloween creates a sort of safe zone for women to dress provocatively because it is, by definition, a day to dress up as something you’re not. So women who might otherwise be reluctant to dress this way feel free to, because they feel like they are just putting on a costume and not really defining themselves in this way”. For women, showing up to lectures or work in a sexualizing outfit that flaunts the body is one way to draw the judgmental gaze. The fear of said gaze must play a role in driving women to avoid “sexy dress territory” on a day-to-day basis. Although we might stick with respectable, safe outfits throughout the year, we can dress ourselves more freely on Halloween sans fear of this judgment. After all, as Alison astutely points out, the costume is “something you’re not”, so you will not be closely associated with it (outside of the fact that it’s on your body). Your “Halloween” self is not your “regular” self, so provocative dress on Halloween night doesn’t disrupt your safety from the judgmental gaze. A sexy Halloween costume is meant to be freeing because it is, in this case, safe. Per other interviewees, it seems that these Halloween costumes are safe in more way than one.
Addie D., a recent graduate of the U of M, notes that “in college, I liked feeling sexy [on Halloween] without worrying about the normal level of harassment that would occur on any other day”. Now we might consider these costumes as safe both in a social sense, and in the sense of physical well-being. Part of this, I think, has to do with the commonness of sexy dress on Halloween, especially on a college campus as big as the U of M’s. It’s not that the perpetrators of harassment are any less active, but that the pool of women dressed in a more sexualizing way is larger. I realize that this statement is pessimistic, but we might look at this another way: as women, our collective sexy dress on Halloween can be considered a form of camaraderie. While the motivation for dressing this way might not be camaraderie-based, female camaraderie is a positive side effect of the sexy costume movement. Additionally, sexualizing dress appears across the female population on Halloween (and/or the weekend leading up to it), normalizing it on this one night and potentially bolstering the idea that “we’re not asking for it.” Halloween might be a not-so-purposeful-SlutWalk event.
Now that we’ve uncovered both individual and structural effects of Halloween’s sexy dress movement, let’s explore implications in which the individual and social structure are combined. Allison H., a junior at the U of M brings one of these themes to light: “For me, sexy Halloween has always been less about not being judged by others, and more about not being judged by myself. The sexy Halloween movement allows me to wear an outfit I might not normally feel comfortable wearing because it’s a costume, and not a projection of my own style”. With Allison H.’s insights, we can nuance the fear of judgment that Alison E. brings up as well. Here, the judgmental gaze takes an internal form, cast from self onto self. Sexualizing outfits have been chucked outside of the norm, which means that those who dress in such ways risk being classified as deviant from social standards. Once established, social norms are often internalized by individuals within the society, and are very hard to shake. Halloween offers a “day off” from these standards, and allows individuals (as Allison H. points out) to dress in whatever way they choose, without fear of reflexive self-measurement against norms and subsequent self-judgment. As “non-normal” dress, costumes are not associated with the construction of social norms. They are outfits to be free in.
Sexy Can I?
While I’m sure there are many other motives for dressing in “sexy” Halloween costumes, these are the three that struck me the most in my interviews with women on campus. Although I focused more on general human psychology, I think that sexy Halloween costumes might be more closely analyzed in an interesting way through the feminist lens. On a more practical note, whatever the reason for dressing in sexy costumes, Halloween is a perfect opportunity to don such gear if you feel so inclined. And if we can desensitize ourselves to different styles of costume on Halloween night, I see no reason why we can’t do this in our day-to-day lives. Dress does not determine merit, character, or potential. So why not simply see an individual in an outfit, and move on?
Image courtesy of: Amazon