"In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up in costumes and beg for candy. 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."
We all know the famous quote by Cady Heron in Mean Girls. When this movie came out, it was one of the first real movies that addressed these types of things in high school. Everyone knew that slutty costumes were common, yet no one talked about it. It was like Fight Club.
In more recent years, companies have monopolized the "lingerie" costume for Halloween. A girl can be a sexy cat, a sexy nurse, a sexy cop, a sexy prisoner, and even a sexy Santa Clause. Halloween has over-sexualized women and this has even trickled down into young girls costumes. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy dressing up for Halloween. I do it every year. Some years I have dressed a little more scantily than other years, but it was my intention. I wasn't trying to dress conservatively and did not have option. It was my choice.
However, last night I went to a bar for Halloween in New Haven. I dressed as a nerd. And it wasn't a sexy nerd. I bought suspenders, had a long sleeve top, buttoned to my neck that was not form-fitting. I wore a bowtie and braided my hair into two lopsided pigtails. I wore highwater jeans that didn't form to my body and sported my argyle socks above my converse. I even wore my retainer out. I was impressed with this costume. I had perfected every detail and was thrilled about it. However, when a guy came up to me and started talking to me last night, he asked me why I didn't make my nerd costume sexy? I told him because I wanted to dress as a nerd, not as a sexy nerd. He then proceeded to tell me all the things I could have done to my costume to make it sexy. Short tight shorts, a shirt with cleavage, tighter suspenders.
I understand having fun and dressing cute to impress someone. As much as we say it shouldn't happen, it does. Women do it all the time. I have a problem with the fact that when women do not dress in this specific manner, they are questioned. Accused. Misunderstood.
Slutty costumes have become expected. How far away are we from being questioned when we don't act like a slut, rather than dress like one?
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