As the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people embrace autumn by wearing costumes, sharing sweet treats and a couple tricks, and attending community festivities. We have all come to know and love Halloween, the one day each year we can be different people and not hear any fuss about it.
Halloween is thought to have originated from the Gaelic festival of Samhain. During Samhain, the Gaelic people believed that the lines dividing the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and the dead would be able to roam the earth freely. In celebration of Samhain, villagers would light bonfires they would dance around and dress up in costumes to ward off the evil ghosts and spirits believed to be roaming the earth.
But since its inception, Halloween has endured quite a few changes resulting in the highly commercialized holiday we all know and love today. Halloween is no longer the scary holiday in which everyone dresses up in the typical scary attire of ghosts, mummies, zombies, witches and villains. Nowadays, costumes consist of sexy police officers, sexy nurses, sexy this and sexy that.
I get it; sex sells and it sells a lot. Halloween gives people the freedom to dress up as an entirely different person or alter ego. But ladies nowadays have taken it to the extreme. Costumes have gotten shorter, tighter and sexier. Frankly, that’s not what Halloween is all about.
Mainstream media has portrayed women as overly sexualized beings. Prime examples would be today’s music and television shows. They make it seem as if women are only useful for sex, which is not true. Being that women are already objectified in mainstream media, dressing up in demeaning and degrading costumes only adds fuel to the ever-raging fire. Maybe it’s the pressure to be accepted that leads women to dress “sexy,” but the madness is simply overwhelming.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Ladies aren’t the only offenders here. Guys are also guilty of being overtly sexual at Halloween. Some men think they’re the sexiest thing walking since David Beckham. Women don’t want only sex from you, fellas, so pack up the goods and save them for a more intimate time and place — preferably not our friend’s Halloween block party.
Looking through Halloween costume catalogs, it shames me to acknowledge what entertains and appeals to our modern society. Costume companies profit from the commercialization of some of our nation’s most scandalous events. Take, for example, the catholic priest and the little boy costume. In this costume, the wearer is dressed in the typical attire of a priest, but around his waist is a little stuffed boy, giving the appearance that the priest is receiving oral sex. This is not only tasteless, but disrespectful and ignorantly stereotyped. This costume shows lack of respect to Catholics, as it assumes that all Catholic priests are pedophiles. Many tasteless and tacky costumes I’ve come across are usually related to something sexual. This just shows that our society approves of people parading around in obscene and offensive attire.
This year and every year afterward, people should take into account that Halloween is just one day out of 365, or the occasional 366. It’s important to have fun and enjoy life but the costumes we choose should never be something you’d look back on with immense regret.
Ladies, if you feel you’re on the verge of a nip slip as catastrophic as Janet Jackson’s at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, the costume is a definite no-no. Fellas, if you decide to wear suspenders, for the love of all things precious, please attach them to something other than tight leather speedos.
Halloween is supposed to be about dressing up and having fun, not having to shield your eyes from someone’s obscene and inconsiderate costume choice. Keep in mind you aren’t the only one who’s going to see your outfit; think about children, your parents or your boss. If you think they wouldn’t approve, then don’t wear it; it’ll be an eye sore for us all.
