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The High School Student News Site of The American School in London

The Standard

Sexualization of halloween

Sexualization of halloween

Halloween costumes used to be a holiday characterized by red tubes of fake blood and gruesome masks. This was before an innocent holiday was transformed into a day when young girls dress provocatively and women are forced to choose between wearing revealing costumes or being labeled prudes.

While this is a stark generalization, it is the current trend with Halloween costumes.

In recent years, Halloween has expanded from a children’s holiday into one that includes adults, marking the start of “sexy” Halloween costume manufacturing.

Sexualized Halloween costumes have grown in popularity, and the production of these costumes has begun to trickle down into the children’s market. As a conerning result, young girls’ costumes have become sexualized, with many costumes including fishnet stockings, bustier tops and shorter skirts. Come on, fishnets on a 9-year-old?

Children aren’t the only ones being hit with this reinvention of what it means to celebrate Halloween. Costumes for young women are becoming limited to “sexy [insert basically any occupation, animal or inanimate object]”, with creative, or even scary costumes becoming discouraged. This cultural phenomenon is degrading as it sexually objectifies women.

All it takes is a quick Google search to realize the massive disparities between female and male costumes. For example, a male cop costume looks like what an actual cop would wear on the job. However, the female versions of cop costumes consist of mini-skirts, tutus and fishnets. Last time I checked, women in law enforcement don’t dress like that. In reality, their uniforms look almost identical to those of  male police officers.

Women’s costumes have deteriorated to the point where“sexy Ebola nurse” and “sexy Rosie the Riveter” (a feminist icon from WWII) are actual costumes.

At the end of the day, women should wear whatever they want for Halloween, not what they feel pressured into wearing by societal expectations – as long as it’s not the sexy Ebola nurse costume.

With that being said, if someone genuinely wants to dress a certain way for Halloween, then I encourage them to. The frustrating aspect is the fact that sexualized costumes are being held as the standard. People should feel free to wear whatever costumes they want for Halloween, and not have to fit into a certain mold of what is expected from them.

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