For most horror fanatics, Halloween is the most exciting part of our entire year. For one night, it becomes socially acceptable for us to show off our nerd prowess without fear of judgement. Now, of course I understand that we are all proud of our geekery year round, but the general populous is less likely to look down upon us around the witching hour. It also shouldn't matter what the general public has to say about us, but for the sake of argument, let us all just accept the fact that we're more welcome to be spooky this time of year in contrast to say, Easter. Moving on. Halloween is a time of tricks, treats, and dressing up as whoever or whatever we please. The weird thing, is that for women, we are forced to be whatever or whoever we please...within a very specific constraint. Provocative. Before I even get into this argument, know that I am a HUGE advocate against Slut-Shaming. If someone wants to dress a certain way, more power to them, this argument is not against women who choose to dress provocatively, it is an argument against perpetuating objectification for no other reason than to excuse objectification with a holiday "tradition".
Without divulging into the history of Halloween and all that jazz, in the western world it is generally accepted as a time of year where individuals dress up in costumes, throw parties, carve pumpkins, and eat an unmeasurable amount of sugar. Costumes can range from common professions, beloved characters, super heroes, monsters, and of course, sexual fantasies. Over the past few years, an unsettling trend of women's costumes has grown to a near epidemic status. It would appear that for a woman to have a socially acceptable Halloween costume, she must wear one in a manner as provocative as humanly possible. Again, let me emphasize that I have no issue with what a woman chooses to or to not wear. However, when I walk into a Halloween costume emporium and have to choose between something baring my midriff, something baring my chest, or something so short I'd show my whispering eye if I sneezed, that is a sign of a problem. The issue here isn't that women are dressing provocatively, the issue is that it would appear that highly sexualized costumes are our only option. Perhaps worse is the fact that this idea has been so engrained into our skulls, women are starting to believe that it really is our only option. Are there exceptions to this rule? Of course. Unfortunately, exceptions are in the vast minority.
It is true that men and women's clothing must be tailored differently simply because we're built differently. (See: Boobs and Hips) However, please look at this photo above. The costume to the left is a familiar Michael Myers costume inspired by the
Halloween series. The costume to the right? The female version of the same costume. Seriously. That's supposed to be a Michael Myers costume. If you look, you'll notice an absence of a mask, a tighter fitting form, a more revealing top towards the breasts, and a set of "fuck-me" pumps. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure Laurie Strode could have knocked the block off of "Michelle Myers". The first image showcased in this article is the increasingly popular "Mrs. Krueger" costume, the female counterpart of Freddy. I will admit that this is a costume that particularly tickles my fancy, but seriously...Freddy wore pants. Freddy also had a face burned to all Holy Hell. Of course, the woman couldn't have burns though, no. Then no one would want to get her in the sack.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of women's Halloween costume is how early the sexualization begins. I won't even post some of the ridiculous things posted about children's costuming, but please read above the description of a "teen" costume. Teen as in "more than likely too young to consent to sex". The description says "...whimsical and girly but you are all grown up now so why not find out if big boys like to play with dolls!" Um. What? This sounds like something out of a kiddie-porn chat session. Remember, this costume is geared towards girls between the ages of 13-18, geared towards women who can't vote or in some instances drive or see an R-Rated movie without the help of mom and dad...AND THEY'RE TRYING TO MAKE THAT SEXY!? The most screwed up part about all of this is that we are still living in a country where lawyers will ask rape victims what they were wearing and yet women are still expected to dress like this on Halloween. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
I'll admit that I'm guilty of dressing "slutty" on Halloween. I always do. I'm 22 years old and I am at college. However, instead of being a half naked "insert profession or object or character" here, I find a way to show of my horror chops as well. Since starting college I've been a female Ash (complete with chainsaw arm), a Silent Hill nurse, a broken doll, and this year I'll be going as Laurie from Trick R Treat. All of these costumes, I've had to make myself. Why? Because not only is it next to impossible to find horror nerd costumes for a girl that aren't the ones featured above,but to find a costume in plus size? Get outta here...
"BUT MEN ARE OBJECTIFIED TOO!" You may cry. No. No they are not. Stop right there. You're wrong. Yes, there will be some skimpy and/or tight fitting costumes here and there, but NOT many. Seriously, I could count on my fingers how many "sexualized" male costumes there were. Hell, even the ones that are there are clearly for the empowerment of the man and not for the female gaze. The “sexy” costumes will either be ridiculously jokey with some sort of visual reference to a penis on the exterior of the costume, OR nothing special. Many of the "sexy" male costumes are just different colored boxers, sometimes with a set of suspenders. The costume to the right is meant to be funny. There's a reason the "Dick In A Box" video got so many hits, and it's not because it was sexually appealing to see Andy Sandburg gift wrap his johnson. Of course I'm not saying that men aren't objectified at times, but in the world of Halloween costumes, men can do whatever they want, but if a woman doesn't dress completely risque, she's "doing it wrong". This is a huge problem and unfortunately, because we keep dishing out the dough for these costumes, it's a problem that isn't going to be resolved anytime soon.
I cannot stress again that I have no qualms with women who decide to dress sexy for Halloween, I do it, I love to do it. It makes me feel good about myself. The problem is that women aren't allowed to make that decision. Dressing sexy is our only option. Unless we make a costume by hand or forego the costumes all together and wear street clothes, women are forced to pick through the aisles of costumes with hemlines growing shorter and tops squeezing tighter. We need options, we need choices, and unfortunately for us, the only decisions we get to make in Halloween costume selection is whether or not we're showing leg or breast this season.
