Halloween is one of the most beloved holidays of the year because children and adults alike look forward to a night of spooky stories, free candy, hot cider, tricks and treats, and of course, the perfect costume. But there isn’t a group of people that love Halloween as much as college students. College students live for Halloweekend to the point where we begin planning our costumes as soon as October 1st roles around. I mean we have to start planning as soon as possible because unlike the rest of the world, our Halloween lasts an entire weekend instead of one short night. As a collegiette here at good ol’ UVM, I absolutely love seeing what costumes everyone comes up with for Halloweekend. Obviously, you can never go a year without the stereotypical sexy kitten or a Reno 911 cop, but I have seen some really kickass costumes and they always make me want to up my ante for next year.
However, just because Halloween is a time for all of us to tuck ourselves away for the night, put on a mask, and be someone new, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay to wear an insensitive costume. When planning our costumes, we need to remember that certain characters, groups, or ideas may be considered offensive to another. This is supposed to be a fun holiday, but there’s nothing even slightly amusing about a distasteful costume. Below are a few incidents where celebrities and kids like you and I got some serious heat for donning extremely offensive costumes.
There have been numerous cases where a celebrity’s Halloween costume has stirred up some major controversy. You would think that because celebrities have a million people working as hard as possible to ensure they maintain a positive image for the world, that they would be safe from making cringe-worthy costume decisions that would result with their face being plastered across the tabloids the next morning. But this is not always the case, and when a celebrity dons a questionable costume, it’s sure to follow them for a long time. In 2012, Chris Brown and a group of friends dressed as Taliban terrorists, complete with guns, for Rihanaa’s Halloween Ball. Brown posted the picture to his social media accounts with a caption that read: “Ain’t nobody F***ing wit my clique!!!!#ohb.” Brown was under attack for quite sometime, understandably so, because his costume was not only completely inappropriate and offensive, but many people stated that it encouraged violence. Another celebrity guilty of poor costume decision-making is Julianne Hough, who just last year caused a major controversy by dressing up as Crazy Eyes, a character in the TV show Orange is the New Black, complete with black face paint. Some claim that Hough shouldn’t have donned the costume at all due to the racial differences between herself and the character, but I don’t agree with that. I think it is more than fine to base your costume on anyone, even if their race differs from yours. I mean, there are young Caucasian girls dressing as Tiana from the Princess and the Frog, and there are young African American girls dressing up as Rapunzel from Tangled. I don’t think race matters when picking a costume, but it has to be in good taste. Hough’s costume could have been a very clever one if she had opted to omit the blackface makeup from it. Blackface has a reputation for insulting the African American community as it was used, starting in the 19th century, by white actors to play black characters because African Americans were not allowed to be part of the theatre or movie industry. Hough released a public apology for her costume, but her incident could have been avoided if she had been more sensitive to racial issues.
Along with celebrities, there are countless incidents where average people tossed their better judgment aside and wore highly offensive and downright enraging costumes. Here are a few that really stuck with and unnerved me. In 2013, two female British students dressed up as the burning Twin Towers. Their costumes depicted the 9/11 attack and they adorned the costumes with planes crashing into them, victims falling from the towers, and burning American flags. Also in 2013, two young men from Florida decided it would be amusing to dress as Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. In the picture that they posted to their Facebook accounts, the man dressed as Martin was wearing blackface makeup and a gray hoodie with a bloody gun wound in his chest, and the man dressed as Zimmerman wore a neighborhood watch T-shirt and fashioned his fingers to depict a gun pointing at “Martin.” The last costume is one that utterly enraged me and I took it extremely personal. Last year, a woman from Michigan dressed as a Boston Marathon bombing victim. As someone from Massachusetts, and who lives on the South Shore, this costume put me over the edge. My city was attacked by terrorists, three people died, nearly 300 people are subjected to lifelong injuries, and this woman thought that this tragedy would make a great costume. All three of these costumes are indescribably offensive, distasteful, and insulting. The individuals involved tried to turn three tragedies that this country has faced into something humorous. The insensitivity that they displayed demonstrates how ignorant and careless they are.
Halloween is just around the corner and I have no doubts that you collegiettes and your friends have been busy coming up with the perfect costume. But please remember to take others into account when you don those costumes Halloweekend. The perfect costume doesn’t have to be controversial or insulting, and let’s be real, you collegiettes are better than that.