Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Even though Halloween is still a day away, the streets on the weekend were already flooded with a parade of clowns, bloody nurses and of course bunnies; think of Regina George in the movie Mean Girls. As a montage of the characters getting ready played, the protagonist Cadie guided us through the rules of the holiday:
“In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.“
Though the quote reeks of internalized misogyny — not surprising for a 2000s classic movie — it does cover the phenomenon of over-sexualized costumes and its social normalization on that one day a year. Dressing in little to no fabric doesn’t make you a slut but using existing roles like nurses, police officers or flight attendants as a fetishized costume is also not a disguised act of sexual liberation. Rather it is reinforcing the narrative of creating submissive female roles in fields that are already underpaying their workers.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The tradition of Halloween costumes has its roots in the Celtic countries. Dating back to the 16th century, early references of costume-wearing can be found in Scotland. By disguising or dressing up as already passed souls and folklore beings, the use of costumes found its purpose in keeping their spirits away from earth. When immigrants came to the US in the second half of the 19th century, they also brought Halloween with them though its meaning shifted to become a holiday of celebrating parties with friends and family. By the 1920s, costumes started to draw inspiration from pop-culture and a whole new sector of a fashion trope was born.
When watching movies, each Halloween party portrayed seems to be setting different standards for costumes for their cis male and cis female characters. While both of them do display pop-culture characters, it goes unquestioned as to why women dress in costumes they would probably get harassed in any other day than Halloween — though even that day doesn’t really guarantee safety. It is true that on October 31st each year, girls and women get to put on clothes that show more skin than usual. Though the concept of sexy costumes is masking itself as self-expression and sexual liberation when it is actually feeding into the construct of satisfying the male gaze. Taking a look at the costume selection for the binary genders, the message it transmits is an expectation for women to wear clothes that oftentimes are rather derogatory than empowering.
Image Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Halloween costumes have always been a subject of debate. Looking back to the past years, the holiday has an extensive archive of cases of cultural appropriation while sexualizing systemically relevant jobs such as professional medical staff has also been an everlasting motif. It is a pattern of taking advantage of marginalized minorities while disregarding their own stories. By dressing up as nurses or wearing clothes meant to assimilate traditional garments, the costumes are only meant to fulfill a fantasy rather than actually paying homage. And subsequently, everything that happens on that one day of spooky parades transfers to real life. Women don’t have spaces they feel safe in. It seems like whatever women do, they are being sexualized when simply doing their job. Qualified workers are treated as submissive women serving someone. Made-up stories surrounding heteronormative relationships between female nurses and male doctors or flight attendants and pilots are constantly interfering with women’s actual qualifications not being taken seriously.
Deep down, Halloween uncovers the wish for freedom. We don’t want to disguise under costumes to have a reason to wear sexy clothes. Halloween has been used as a tool by women to put on clothes to express sexual liberation because everyday life doesn’t offer space for it. But we want that freedom every day of the year. And above all, women are only asking for the bare minimum of wanting to be treated with respect when they are simply just trying to live.