1. “Sexy” Animals
The infamous “sexy” animal craze is epitomized by every other girl you see at a party with eyeliner smudged on her cheeks and nose to look like some lazy whiskers. This costume is really just an excuse for girls to wear bigger, winged eyeliner than the would normaly wear, with the security of knowing that they look like they do every other day of the year but slightly more “adventurous.” I’m not saying all animal costumes should be passed over, but try to do something cool and inventive. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that can help you achieve a cool, scary, or even a realistic animal costume that people will actually be excited to see.
2. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
For the love of God, this election has been wild enough. Let everyone just have one night of peace from what has already been a horrifying experience. That being said, I would love to see some more clever iterations of political satire driven costumes (i.e. a “nasty girl,” Trumps tax returns, or something that you can’t just get a mask for at Party City).
3. A Kardashian (specifically that one offensive Kim costume)
The specific costume I’m refering to has made its rounds all over the internet already, but, really, why is it funny that a woman feared for her life and safety? You can try to be funny as much as you want on Halloween (it’s a fun holiday), but recognize that what happened to Kim wasn’t a joke. If you want to be topical and poke some fun at these pop culture icons, do something that isn’t incredibly insensitive. You could go as one of Kendall’s runway looks or one of Kylie’s lip kits. Seriously, there are so many looks you could go with that don’t make light of a really serious event in someone else’s life.
4. Elsa (for the third year in a row)
Please go as anything else this year. Everyone is tired of seeing a gaggle of ten Elsa’s walking up and down the street. If you take nothing else from this list, please just don’t go as Elsa again.
5. Something transphobic
Do I even need to say why this is a bad idea? It’s 2016. If you are still gross enough to see trans people as a joke, you need some serious re-educating.
6. Anything from Suicide Squad
I know you want to go as Harley Quinn and the Joker with your boyfriend this year. Everyone does. If you wear this costume you will spend all night comparing your look to the seventy-seven other Harley Quinns you see before the night is over. This also kind of goes for all of those super popular hero costumes–like Wonder Woman, Black Widow, and Poison Ivy–especially if you are just going for a straight-out-of-the-bag-from-Party-City costume. If you want to do a hero costume, I suggest looking at some of the costumes that aren’t really typical of the character, like Eartha Kitt’s 1960s cat woman or the really greek, gladiator-style Wonder Woman is rocking in the New 52.