Lace corsets, glitter and any type of animal paraphernalia? Yup, it’s Halloween. The second most commercially successful holiday in America has dawned upon us, and almost synonymously so has another night full of bunny ears and spandex.
It’s interesting how as kids, we had the scariest costumes in mind for ourselves. I will never forget my sixth grade Halloween when I dressed up as a zombie bride, fake blood smeared eye liner and everything. In all my innocence, I never thought that Halloween would emerge into a holiday which involved the fetishizing of nurses, maids and policemen; and as derogatory as that statement may come off as, I have no objection to it– and neither should you.
One of the perks of Halloween is its boundless possibility for the creative soul. It is as open as a blank canvas for those who wish to express themselves. Self-expression — that’s what makes the holiday so popular. People like the idea of becoming something else, if not becoming the costume that they put on, they at the very least become someone more bold, confident and different — and that should be encouraged rather than chastised.
There is very little discrepancy on whether or not seemingly promiscuous Halloween costumes were meant to be edgy or not; they were. They are meant to draw attention and cause controversy, but in all honesty, the controversy they cause, for the most part, is harmless. They are meant to draw attention, but only because we so easily feed them the attention that they are seeking.
We are evolving into a society that is beginning to understand that shaming someone based on what they wear any other day of the year is unacceptable. But for whatever reason, when they decide to go one step further and categorize the way that they choose to dress into a costume, it is borderline obscene. People are so quick to assume that someone who chooses to display themselves in a risqué fashion are not only desperate for attention but lack self-respect. When did self-respect begin to mold with self-expression?
Inversely, as a girl, specifically of college age, there is almost a hidden social pressure to dress racy for Halloween — and that is wrong, too. This underlying idea that women need to dress sexy on Halloween in order to be socially acceptable or to avoid being a social pariah is one that is not only overrated, but ridiculous. I see girls all the time concerned about going out on Halloween because their skirt is not short enough or tight enough, and while I’ve stated before that women and men should both have the liberty to dress as provocatively as they please, particularly on Halloween, there shouldn’t be a social pressure to do so. There shouldn’t be a sense of obligation to dress in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable. At all.
It is not someone’s duty to be aesthetically appealing to you during Halloween, nor is it their obligation to dress modestly out of fear of sexist backlash. Someone’s dress has no implications tied to it. Point blank. So rock that lace corset, or that animal onesie, and don’t let a predisposed idea of Halloween norms affect that decision.