Costume controversy

As Halloween costumes get smaller, so do our minds

Depending on whom you’re talking to, preparation for Halloween can mean a variety of different things. Children are drooling over the anticipation of bags of candy. Teenage boys are stocking up on eggs and toilet paper to vandalize their teachers’ houses. High schoolers are deciding whether or not they’re too cool to participate in the holiday, while it’s the highlight to most college students’ fall semester.

College girls spend hours bedazzling, cutting, and slut-ifying their Goodwill finds or putting a down-payment on a pre-made costume that is no more than two yards of total fabric. Their goal? To look as provocative as possible and ignore the snarky glares of judgment from spectators.

“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it,” were the famous words of Lindsay Lohan from Mean Girls, and who am I to disagree?

It’s likely girls are modeling their ideas of what to wear after movies like Mean Girls; so is it society’s blame that girls are finding themselves walking around in revealing attire? It’s as if the social pressure to dress risqué undermines the personal decision. However, it’s probably more insulting to say these girls are unable to make their own decisions than to say they just felt like dressing “slutty” for a night.

Some of the costumes I see are almost to a point of parody. Obviously, these girls are well aware of the message they are sending to everyone around them, so if they want to do it, embrace it. The idea of girls dressing floozy for one night doesn’t bother me. How could I judge a person based on what they do one night a year?

One thing I find more appalling about these costumes is the fact it’s just a one-shot affair. Blood, sweat and tears go into these carefully crafted outfits just to be trashed and forgotten about.

The ultimate concern I have for girls dressing provocatively would be if their lives revolve around being sexy 365 days a year. Honing in on an alter-ego for a night might be good for you. If girls want to show off their sexy side one time in a year, I don’t see any harm.

Instead of worrying about what other people are doing, I’d much rather spend my time looking forward to the inevitable discounted candy the next week and people packing away the decorative spiders that always freak me out.

Despite my apathy for these girls’ decisions, I can’t help but wonder how the once-Christian holiday transformed into a celebration with partying, drinking and sexualizing females.

3 comments

I don’t understand. What’s the point of this column? First she slutshames, then she says it’s totally cool and she supports being slutty, then she suggests that all of the sluttyness can be cast out by dressing slutty for one night…then she talks about Halloween being a Christian holiday? That one is way out of left field.

Dang, I know FSU’s budget is low, but Google is free. Halloween is the same story as most “Christian” holidays. The Pagans did it first and then the Christians were like “Hey, more people go to their festivals. We should steal their ideas and then condemn their beliefs!”

I agree. Who’s in charge of this section and let this slip? I used to love picking up the Torch and reading the Opinions section but this year it’s turned to total s**t. This kind of tripe isn’t even worth printing. There used to be columns about politics and other real issues, now all you see is BS like this and people whining. Even the letter from the editor column sounds like a entitled teenager crying her pillow. If I wanted to read about people whining I’d use Facebook more.

And yeah, The “Halloween used to be a Christian holiday” line is the only reason I’m even commenting. The slutshaming is something I expect out of Ferris, the mixup of calling Halloween Christian? Are you f**king kidding me?!

Torch, you kids need some help. Get your stuff together or you’ll deserve to go under like you keep reporting.

Comments are closed.