Halloween, as I remember from my childhood, was a time of haunted houses, carving pumpkins, playing pranks, all set on the foundation of scaring people. I do not know when it evolved to be a day of scantily clad debaucherous revelry. I realize this had more to do with the appropriateness for my age demographic than the cultural shift, but at one point in time Halloween was not a sexy holiday. Thus I began researching.
Christian origins of Halloween or All Hallows' Eve is rooted in the practice of "souling." It was essentially a time for poor people to beg door to door for cakes to eventually pray for souls in purgatory. People, often children, donned masks to disguise themselves from souls seeking vengeance. It was a time to dress like a zombie and frighten away any soul that posed a threat.
Costumes today have evolved to something a little more inviting than scary.
As the tradition of Halloween has evolved, some are vocal against the implications of sexy, or arguably sexist Halloween costumes. Halloween's sex appeal is definitely a female-centric phenomenon. Men's costumes, though they may have gotten diversely sillier, generally do not aim to exude sex. The stark contrast of the very same costumes for men and women is illustrated in this blog: http://fucknosexisthalloweencostumes.tumblr.com/. Men's costumes are not revealing or suggestive, and are much more representative of what the costume aims to portray.
So is Halloween a sexist holiday? Is this merely another way to demean, exploit and objectify women? Should we all retire our costumes and rage against the machine? Maybe bring back the scare in to our costumes, and ease up on the sexy? Or is this rather a means of empowering women, letting them feel confident and secure in their own skin? Is this one of the few times a woman can actually express her repressed sexuality?
Regardless of how you feel about how overtly sexualized Halloween has become, the slut shaming needs to stop. Judging a woman for her costume choice, or calling her a "whore", "skank" or "slut" is by no means in the furtherance of feminism.
In the past few weeks I have had some interesting experiences. One fellow graduate student told me I was "better than that," upon description of my costume. I am not sure what that meant, but the implication was clearly patronizing. Another friend went on a tirade about how I was too stupid to think for myself and went with the crowd, and was merely portraying myself as a play thing for men.
As a free thinking woman in the 21st century, I will dress sexy if I want to-- for Halloween, and any other damn day of the year I please.
In a society where rape culture is so prevalent that oftentimes when a woman is raped, one of the first questions she’ll be asked is "What were you wearing?" or "Were you asking for it?" the last thing women need to do is cut each other down.
The problem is not with what women are wearing, but with how society shifts blame to women.
6 comments:
"Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it."
I have to say that I agree with the Mean Girls sentiment. I think that one of the reasons that Halloween has become so sexualized is because females (and society) are constantly putting women down based on their outfit choices. Halloween has become the one time of year when we have subconsciously agreed to not judge each other (but of course there will always be haters!)
This video gives a hilarious spin on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPPsf-Mi8FY
Jenna Marbles does a great job of summing up why girls dress up on Halloween and even challenges females to compliment each other, rather than tear each other down.
I have mixed feelings about it. Personally, I do not feel empowered by grabbing a cheap slutty-Hermione costume from the store that doesn't cover my ass cheeks and embodies zero self-expression. And this is the only alternative available in the stores. So is that a choice? I personally don't want to be the gang-bang version of my beloved childhood idols. I feel it encourages women to compete for queen slut for male attention - and what is that really getting us? I don't think women should be shamed into covering up - but neither should they be shamed into taking it off.
I don't care if people wear little on Halloween, or any other day of the year. I try not to care what others think about my clothing either. But, if I ever think I am only dressing for myself, I remind myself that the first thing I do every night is tear my clothes off and pile on the pajamas...and its the same thing I do on Halloween when I get home. All clothing is a compromise - I think it's just important to be self-aware about the compromises we're making.
"And this is the only alternative available in the stores." I think Sarah nailed it here. I have mixed feelings about if it is a "choice" to dress slutty. However, in this instance, I don't think it is if it's the only option available.
I agree with the previous posters that it is less of a personal expression when dressing slutty is the only choice offered in mainstream, preproduced costumes. I have nothing wrong with people wanting to show a little skin on any given day, but dressing slutty on Halloween has become such a cliche now that I find it a little boring, and therefore disappointing.
I usually end up making my costumes out of regular clothes so I can avoid the Halloween Industrial Complex (aka $60 for some cheap, shiny lycra thing you will wear once). I like dressing a little sexier than a normal day, but I still want to feel like me at least a little. If wearing not much is how you express yourself, more power to you I guess. But at least be creative about it! I don't think being a sexy nurse is anyone's idea of expression.
Thank you for writing about such a prevalent and timely issue. I get into this argument every year around this time, and I would like to present a queer perspective on the "sluttiness" of Halloween.
I see in the queer community and in queer Halloween spaces that men and women both "slut" it up for Halloween - because for some, the goal of showing a lot of skin is to go home with someone at the end of the night and have some fun. To that end, any woman who is scantily clad will receive sexual attention - but this is not the case for men. Gay men receive the sexual attention they want from other gay men (and sometimes women) by showing a lot of skin. But heterosexual men who show a lot of skin cannot achieve their intended purpose of hooking up with a girl - the girl at that party will see him in his Chippendale's outfit and assume that he is gay, and move on. As a result, there is no incentive for a straight male to dress up as a sexy fill-in-the-blank on Halloween. It's almost wasted effort.
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