Halloween is this weekend, which means celebrations are going to begin this Thursday or maybe even this Wednesday if you're feeling crazy. When we were younger, Halloween meant walking around a suburban neighborhood holding a flashlight and wearing three long sleeves under your fairy costume to keep you warm. You carried your pillowcase with you and raced to every doorstep you could before your mom made you retreat to your house so you could bargain with your siblings to get some better candy (seriously who liked Almond Joy at 8 years old?). As a college student, Halloween has become an entirely new holiday. Instead of reusing that same homemade costume you used the past three Octobers, you now are expected to have three or more costumes for the entire Halloween weekend. It has become the struggle of not wanting to be basic (I am guilty of being a cat) and not wanting to drop 50 bucks on a costume. Another struggle of picking a costume, is not wanting to be judged for how "slutty" or how conservative your costume is. No matter which route you take for a Halloween costume, it doesn't define your character the other 364 days of the year.
There are many critics who like to say Halloween is an awful holiday which degrades women and markets on making sexist and tasteless costumes. There is some truth in this statement. If you go on any website which sells Halloween costumes, there will be a tab for "sexy", where you will find pages and pages devoted to costumes that show skin and extenuate a woman's body. There are police officer costumes for women which consist of mid thigh leather dresses and handcuffs. There are the super hero costumes which are basically tight dresses with a cape and there are even nun costumes that no priest would approve of. Do these costumes empower woman? No. But if you wear these costumes, does that make you a slut? Absolutely not.
It's time to stop treating Halloween like an anti feminist holiday because it is actually the opposite. When I pick out my costumes for Halloween, I am thinking of what I would feel the most comfortable in. If I feel comfortable wearing a skimpy superhero outfit, then don't tell me I am being degraded by society because I make my own choices. If I feel comfortable wearing a full body costume, then don't tell me I should be proud of not dressing like "those other girls" because there is nothing wrong with their costumes either. We wear what we want to wear. While not everyone may like the costumes Halloween retailers sell for women, no woman is being forced to dress as a play boy bunny.
Halloween is a holiday meant for having fun and being something you're not. If you want to dress as a flapper, go do it. If you want to dress like a clown, go do it. If a girl is wearing a costume that makes her feel confident and powerful, then who cares what other people say. The moment we take away a style of Halloween costumes that are viewed as degrading, is the moment we degrade women. You are not your costume and you have every right to dress however you want and not be subjected to people telling you, you are dressed "slutty". Women should not be told what to wear and should not be judged on what they wear. Halloween is a holiday people, so stop focusing on the costumes girls are wearing and worry about more important things (like banning Almond Joy from bulk candy bags).
