While perusing the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, I came across an advertisement somewhere between the pages of the movie reviews dedicated to the promotion of Halloween costumes.
Star Trek is hot this season, what with the popular reboot only weeks away from home distribution. There will certainly be a number of Michael Jackson impersonators roaming around campus this Saturday night, attempting to moonwalk wearing a reproduction red leather jacket with silver shoulder bands (too soon?). I can’t wait to see if anyone tries to emulate the backwards mullet of Kate Gosselin, perhaps accessorized with eight exhausted little tykes tied to the hip.
However, with every Halloween season comes the sexifying of popular costume motifs. As it is quoted in Mean Girls, “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”
Angels and devils. Ladybugs and bumblebees. Vampires and witches. Cats. Just slap on a miniskirt, some knee-high boots, and add some basic accessories so people know what you’re trying to be, and suddenly you’re wearing a Halloween costume.
I’m not saying that these costumes are necessarily lazy or cheap (on the contrary, many of these store-bought full costumes can be pretty expensive). I’m just saying that it leaves little to the mind. What’s wrong with dressing up like an actual spawn of Satan? Or an actual undead creature of the night? Or an actual cat? Cat ears and a tail over a mini dress do not count, in my book.
What really irked me, in this aforementioned advertisement, was a costume that was titled “Sexy Freddy Krueger Costume.” The costume includes the following:
1. Red and black long-sleeved sweater dress, complete with short skirt and strategically-ripped front, exposing the model’s sexy midriff.
2. One stiff-looking brown fedora, which doesn’t look like it fits all that well on the model’s head.
3. One glove with knives attached to the fingers, with one knife resting gently and seductively on the model’s lower lip.
4. NO BURN SCARS ON THE FACE.
Come along now. You can’t be Freddy Krueger – even a “Sexy Freddy Krueger” – without going all-out on the make-up. It’s what makes the character so frightening. And sure, frightening isn’t really the key word that’s being sold, but it’s the word that is (or should be) most associated with the holiday being celebrated.
We can say that vampires and witches and devils are allowed to be cute and sexy because there is a certain kind of seduction to power and everlasting life. Freddy Krueger was set on fire for being a child molester.
Please, Halloween costume merchandisers: stop making our costumes so ridiculously provocative, especially when it is unnecessary for them to be. You’re making it far too easy for us girls to break away from making our own costumes.
Last year I went as Poison Ivy from the Batman universe – granted, my costume was really nothing more than a leotard over some green tights, but I spent a week sewing leaves onto the leotard for the desired nature effect, plus I dyed my hair red. I’m not entirely proud of the booty exposed that night, but I will always remain proud of the effort I put forward in its creation.
Halloween is the one time of the year when we get to dress up and eat candy and act like children and no one judges us for it. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to leave the sexy out.
