Now that October is here it is officially appropriate to begin planning your Halloween costume! For many, this is a fun time without much worry. However, for some college-aged females, this is simply not the case. Females are under constant scrutiny regarding their clothing choices, but Halloween puts an even greater focus on women's appearances. Every costume is essentially looked at and picked apart under society's watchful eye. More so on Halloween than most other days, women feel intense pressure to dress a certain way.
While choosing a Halloween costume, women have to keep a million things in mind all at once. First and foremost, the costume must be physically attractive. This means it must be a) short, b) tight, or c) low-cut. Yet, if you choose d) all of the above, then you face a different problem. Society tells women that if they choose "all of the above" then they are sluts.
Society has also told women that being a "slut" is the worst thing that they could be, but they are also told that women who don't wear short, tight outfits are boring.
Women also face the decision between choosing a funny costume or a cute costume. Unfortunately, which route you decide to take ultimately leads to people making sweeping generalizations about the type of person you are. A girl who chooses to dress "cute" on Halloween is often viewed as a vapid, shallow, uninteresting girl. However, a girl who chooses a "funny" costume is often viewed as prudish or unsexy.
This criticism does not only come from one gender. Men and women alike seem to feel as if they are allowed to pass judgment on what other women wear. Experience has shown me that despite Cady Heron from Mean Girls infamously saying, "In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it," girls still rip on each other, even on Halloween. Girls call each other "sluts" more than guys do, and I will never understand this. It's too often the girls who choose "funny" costumes who rip on the girl in the sexy cat costume, and it's too often the girls in the "cute" costume who declare that the girl in the funny costume is unattractive.
Society has also told women that being a "slut" is the worst thing that they could be, but they are also told that women who don't wear short, tight outfits are boring.
If all women feel this pressure to be sexy but not too sexy, then we, as women, should be understanding of this and cast our judgments aside. Halloween is supposed to be a fun day where everyone dresses in whatever costume they want (as long as it is not offensive, but that's a whole different conversation) with the only worry being "will people think my costume is clever/funny/creative/cute?" and not if they will be deemed a "prude" or "whore". Unfortunately for women, those seem to be our only options.
This is not meant to be a rant, though I know it is coming off that way, but more so a request. Ladies, let's stop judging each other for the exact things we are most afraid of being judged for. Men, our Halloween costume choices do not give you an excuse to label us as one word: be that prude, slut, or any other judgement based off our appearance. This applies to daily life, as well, but I think it is extremely important to remember this on Halloween, in particular. I think we can all admit that we want to be both attractive and clever (aka Emma Watson or Jennifer Lawrence) so we should be happy when a female chooses a costume that makes her feel good.
