Ah, Halloween. A time for jack-o-lanterns, apple bobbing and little ghouls and ghosts with big bags of candy.
This is the Halloween of our childhoods. But as we’ve become adults, has it stayed that way? Not really.
But for many young women, it’s become just another occasion to show skin and impress the opposite sex.
Newspapers and magazines are plastered with costume-shop ads this time of year. Sexy Dorothy, Sexy Goldilocks, Sexy policewoman. These ads are marketed toward anyone who can fit into an adult-size costume.
At this time of year more than any other, middle- and high-school girls are encouraged to dress like tramps for male gratification. Some of these girls will pick up on the social conditioning that encourages them to dress that way at the expense of their own self-respect.
Self-respect begins at home. If you host a Halloween party this Fright Night, give prizes for scary, funny or clever costumes.
Reward people for using their brains, not showing off their bodies.
Maybe we sound like prudes, but if you go trick-or-treating in a costume that doesn’t involve a skirt that’s four inches long, you’ll be warmer and you might not get so many uninvited stares.
There’s no need to go trick-or-treating in a burqa, but just be yourself. Halloween shouldn’t be a day for women to objectify themselves. It should be a day for women, and men, to be what they always wanted to be for a few hours.
What’s more, the trend toward hypersexual costumes goes against the spirit of Halloween. It’s supposed to be a scary holiday. How terrifying is a slutty Snow White?