By Lia Richardson
Staff Writer
Halloween isn’t just rows of candle-lit jack-o-lanterns or buckets of candy that’ll last you weeks. As Mean Girls’ Cady Heron would put it, “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.” Although I believe no one should speak poorly of anyone for wearing as much or as little clothing as their heart desires, this highlights a relevant issue. Halloween brings a new wave of demeaning and sexualized costumes that should be talked about more often.
With every year, it is increasingly difficult to find a woman’s Halloween costume that isn’t sexual – whether it be of animals, fictional characters, professional roles such as those in the medical field or even religious figures. There are a plethora of sexy Halloween costumes that cross the line of what is appropriate to dress as. Oftentimes, the ideas of self-expression and empowerment are misused and sexy Halloween costumes actively harm women by normalizing harmful notions and behaviors towards them.
I only began to think about this topic when I saw a girl last Halloween night wearing what would be called a “sexy cop” costume. I’ve never been one to care about what people choose to wear, but the costume put a bad taste in my mouth.
Normally, I’d chalk these kinds of costumes up to the fact that people can wear whatever makes them feel confident or empowered, and I still believe that, but dressing up as a sexy version of pre-existing roles such as nurses or police officers is not something that should be seen as an act of sexual liberation or something that is empowering women through self-expression. Rather, it is the exact opposite. Sexy costumes of professional roles take away from the fact that these roles are carried by qualified and hardworking women, reducing them to the fantasy of being submissive, sexual beings.
While it may seem like a day of fun to most people, sexualized Halloween costumes have real-life repercussions. Nurses and police officers dedicate their lives to keeping the community safe and healthy, yet they are some of the most commonly worn sexy costumes. This only highlights the fact that sexualization is inescapable, even in some of the most admirable and professional jobs, and that it is particularly difficult for women to be treated professionally.
In fact, 60% of women say they have experienced unwanted sexual attention, sexual coercion, sexually crude conduct or sexist comments in the workplace, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. By normalizing the sexualization of women in professional roles, sexy Halloween costumes are indirectly contributing to inappropriate behaviors against women in the workplace.
I want to be clear: the objectification of women is not caused by women dressing in sexy clothing, and the issue is not with women wearing sexy costumes. At the end of the day, women have the right to dress how they please and that shouldn’t translate into having to deal with unwanted sexual advances from men.
With all that said, it is important to keep in mind which costumes are ways to simply look good and feel confident in and which costumes have sexist undertones and history. There are plenty of ways to dress sexy on Halloween without perpetuating sexist viewpoints. A multitude of fictional or fantasy characters would be harmless to spice up.
So ladies, this Halloween and every day, dress for fun, confidence and rock those form fitting, shoulder baring looks while considering how what you do perpetuates or shuts down sexist stereotypes.