Anyone who has seen the iconic piece of cinema that is "Mean Girls" remembers the unforgettable Halloween party sequence. Cady, played by Lindsay Lohan, enters the house party expecting frightening costumes and gory face paint. Yet what she discovers is a uniformity of scanty costumes amongst her female peers, ranging from Playboy bunnies to black cats. At that moment, Cady comes to the realization of the standards a teenage girl on Halloween must embody. In her words, she explains: "In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it."
Through this observation, Cady, like many other girls her age, begins to notice the shifting perception of Halloween as girls grow up. Her entrance to the party illustrates the coming-of-age moment in which a teenage girl realizes that Halloween is a time in which she feels obligated to cater to the male gaze. This term, coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey, refers to the tendency of viewing the actions and appearances of women from an exclusively male perspective.
One may wonder where the male gaze arises in a space that Cady refers to as a “girl world,” where it is not uncommon for girls to call each other “sluts” for perpetuating standards of sexuality. The prevalence of the male gaze provides context for this phenomenon. This context, however, often goes unnoticed, and prominent actors such as the male gaze and corporate influence escape accountability. Instead, these discussions get lost in the blame game that often occurs among adolescent girls.
Corporations are a vehicle for the male gaze in their eagerness to capture the transition girls undergo from childhood into adolescence. This corporate seizure becomes evident in the sexualization of Halloween costumes for adolescent girls – a sudden aesthetic shift from the childhood holiday associated with imaginations of scary witches, ghosts, zombies, and the like. The options companies provide for women and girls during Halloween often lack creativity and usually consist of sexual or scandalous attributes. This targeted tactic becomes apparent from a removed position, but when observed from within, it is tempting to discount corporate influence and instead attribute this phenomenon to girls striving to seek attention through exposed costumes.
While these factors occur in the “girl world” Cady describes, the situation appears to be quite different in the “boy world.” A double standard quickly becomes evident in the comparison of these two spheres on Halloween. Men and boys do not endure the pressures and obligations of looking sexually appealing to satisfy a female gaze. As a result, they have the ability to prioritize fun and creativity of Halloween without constantly worrying about factors such as sexual appeal.
After realizing the conformist pressures of Halloween for girls growing up, many women ultimately have a complicated relationship with the holiday. What began as a festivity focusing on candy and fright transforms into one that raises questions about the legitimization of femininity beneath the male gaze. Actress and comedian Anna Faris points out, “As a woman, it’s lose-lose, because if you dress up as something sexy, it’s inevitably uncreative…but then if you want to go the other way, like something interesting and truly creative, then you’re envious of the sexy women.”
Here, Faris illustrates two choices: one in which sexual hyperfemininity aligns with the male gaze, and the other which fosters insecurity, leaving one not seeming “feminine” enough. This second option results in feelings of envy and exclusion, much like what Cady endures in her memorable "Mean Girls" Halloween entrance.
