Halloween is one of my favorite holidays for many reasons. Carving pumpkins, cheating on my diet with Twix and decorating my house full of skulls and faux spider webs are just a few of my favorites. I do have a bone to pick with Halloween, however. I'm not sure when the tradition started of young girls dressing up as "animals" as an excuse to wear lingerie, but it needs to end. I've heard that the psychology behind it is that it's one day out of the entire year where a woman can feel sexy and liberated without receiving negative feedback, but, that's not really the message I'm getting from young ladies bouncing around residential neighborhoods and college campuses in their skivvies.
For those of us who don't yet have children, it seems Halloween has become a nationwide competition amongst young women to see who can wear the least amount of clothing. In the movie Mean Girls, Cady (Lindsay Lohan) shows up to a Halloween party dressed as a zombie bride (she titled the costume "an ex wife") while all of the other girls at the party showed up wearing different sets of lingerie and animal ears for effect. Granted, Cady didn't know Halloween was an excuse for girls to dress like harlots, I still loved her originality and deviation from the norm. As a woman, it would be both comforting and exciting to attend a costume party where I don't feel uncomfortable around my peers. I look forward to seeing what types of crazy, outlandish costumes my friends will come up with year after year, but it sucks the spirit out of Halloween when I already know the fun, innovative costumes will inevitably be drowned out by the sexy cops, firefighters and animals of this world. The worst "sexy costume" I've seen thus far was a sexy lamb. The costume consisted of ears, a faux lambskin bra, a faux lambskin skirt and ruffly pink underwear. How on this earth could one possibly take something as innocent and cute as a lamb and turn it into something so dreadful and slutty? Before I grew up and realized how un-cool it is to dress inappropriately, I'll admit I donned the sexy cop costume and even did the whole kitty ears thing one year. This particular Halloween weekend, however, I opted for a homemade Greek goddess costume. I felt perfectly plain with just the right amount of sex appeal and none of the sluttiness. Although I have no children, I'm fairly certain once I do I'd rather show them photos of me dressed as Aphrodite than I would of me dressed as a “sexy kitten”.
Halloween should be an excuse to drink craft beers and eat unlimited amounts of sweets, not an excuse to bare your body. All women and girls should know that it's always okay to be yourself. The costumes are one of the best parts about Halloween, so if you have a killer idea, go for it! Don't do yourself a disservice by dressing like a prostitute just because it seems cool at the moment. This Halloween have fun, take pictures, eat all the candy your little heart desires, and most importantly, stay true to you
Emily Cloutier (@emifbaby)
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