Halloween is quickly approaching us and what could potentially be a great night, especially in college, also poses a bit of a dilemma: picking a really good costume. If you go as something basic, like a “cat” in lingerie and cat ears, you run the risk of literally every other girl at the party wearing the same thing. If you try too hard to be clever, you’ll be getting the dreaded “what are you?” question all night. And if you’re not careful you also run the risk of wearing something that could be offensive.
So I’m here to help you out by warning you about costumes that are just not okay. But to be honest with you, if you thought any of these were appropriate in the first place, you might need some serious self-evaluation stat.
#1: Blackface
I mean, I love Julianne Hough but what is she even supposed to be dressed up as??
In case you don’t understand why this is so offensive, let me give you a brief history lesson in hopes it will hardcore discourage you from ever even considering this as a costume option, from everyone’s favorite, Wikipedia: Starting in the 19th century, white people would smear their faces with greasepaint or shoe polish to darken their skin and exaggerate their lips. Then they’d act stupid and spew racial slurs to reinforce negative racial stereotypes for black people and that was considered primetime TV. And I’ll leave you with this picture:
#2: Cultural Appropriation
I feel like not everyone’s aware of when they commit cultural appropriation sins, but honestly there’s no excuse for stealing aspects of a culture or religion that is not your own and sexualizing it, something Halloween is notorious for. It strips these symbols of their meaning and perpetuates stereotypes of certain racial or religious groups. Need some examples of what to avoid? Check out this article by the talented Hannah Khan.
#3: People who have been traumatized
I don’t care how much you dislike Kim Kardashian, there is nothing amusing about someone being robbed and suffering trauma. I can’t even imagine why someone would create this costume in the first place. And who would pay $70 for it?! This is just disrespectful and tasteless.
#4: Personified Tragedies
In what world would this be okay? I honestly don’t have words to describe how inappropriate and awful it is to take a tragedy that so immensely affected our country and try to make light of it. I mean just look at the smirks on their faces. It makes my blood boil.
To a slightly lesser degree but still seriously messed up, dressing up as a gorilla that’s dragging a baby doll around or making it into a group costume is also unacceptable. And yes, that was a tragedy, and yes it was terrible that they killed the gorilla. But that was months ago and people are still giving the Cincinnati Zoo administration crap for their snap judgment. Like move on! There are a lot more serious things going on in the world. Like the fact that people are considering a proven sexual assailant to be a viable candidate to rule over the free world. And also, can I just say, why do college guys think it’s cool to say stuff like “Tits out for Harambe” and shout his name from the rooftop in their drunken state? Guess what: it’s NOT!
#5: Making things sexy that ARE NOT MEANT TO BE SEXY!
I really can’t imagine anyone actually wears these costumes, but considering they’re still sold on the internet, I imagine they’ve had a few customers. I’m here to tell you: NO! Halloween may be the night you can be as scantily clad as possibl,e and no one can really say anything, but it is not the night to sexify childhood characters, racial stereotypes or religious symbols!
Who the heck thought it was okay to sexify Christianity?!
#6: Something Basic
Okay, so technically this one’s not “offensive,” but I’m pretty freaking offended when I see girls who aren’t taking full advantage of the only night in a year where you can be someone else completely and instead go for something lame like this:
Now I understand if maybe you just weren’t blessed with creativity and you feel that wearing lingerie and some sort of animal ears is your only option. But I’m here to tell you, there are so many great options out there. Take it from this article by Jessica Schuler. Now that we’ve gotten through all that, go out and conquer Halloween night without being offensive enough to make Donald Trump look like a tolerant human being!