(buycostumes.com)

Every year, I come home on Halloween and proclaim that, “next year, I’m just going as a slut.”

I mean, I might as well. Every girl on campus, myself included, seems to put extraordinary effort into turning a normal costume into something provocative. I could save myself a lot of time by not having to bother pretending to be a nurse.

According to Thursday’s New York Times, the evolution of Halloween into what comedian Carlos Mencia has deemed “Dress Like a Whore Day” extends beyond the college crowd.

Some of the experts interviewed for the Times article viewed this as a step backwards for women. There aren’t nearly as many sexualized costumes for men, and some women complain about the lack of normal costumes available. Deborah Tolman, the director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University, also expressed concern that teenage girls are starting to believe that being “sexy” is only for someone else, not themselves.

I’d really love to condemn Halloween for single-handedly undermining the women’s movement. But like most of the girls on campus, I’m not going to deny that dressing a little provocatively can be downright fun. It’s a night to act out a personality other than your own and explore a different side of yourself. My daily uniform consists of t-shirts and jeans. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to branch out a little? It could even be considered a feminist statement for women to express our sexuality so openly.

There are some caveats. If you’re killing yourself trying to make a sexy policewoman costume just because all your friends are doing it, then you’re not making a feminist statement. Ditto for if it makes you so uncomfortable that you spend the entire night with your arms folded in front of your chest. It also doesn’t count as a healthy expression of sexuality if your only aim is to impress boys.

Halloween is a week from Tuesday, and we all know that nighttime at the end of October can be chilly. But if you’re comfortable with it, throw on a corset under your parka and risk frostbite because you’re wearing hot pants when it’s 30 degrees outside. It’s okay, we all know you’re really supposed to be Minnie Mouse.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 12:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.