Costume Drama: Sexy Nurse or Witch?
by Lily Saltzberg

“Army girl,” “rapper” or converting my favorite staples (a leotard and tights) into “80’s girl.” I admit the topic of Halloween costumes fascinates me because the holiday is my favorite thing to procrastinate. I never plan ahead and it always seems to sneak up on me forcing a frantic rush to throw together original costumes.

Women often use Halloween as an excuse to dress slutty. Come on, admit it— you’ve heard people say it, maybe even dared think it yourself? I’m not trying to argue immunity from the slutty nature of female costumes, but simply trying to delve deeper into the psyche of my own gender. On Halloween, we give ourselves the opportunity to be anything. Maybe that’s why American culture has adopted and adores the originally Celtic tradition. So why do we choose to be “sexy cats” and “half-naked ghosts?”

This year, as my friends excitedly purchase their Halloween costumes, I have vowed to start planning too. But honestly, and perhaps embarrassingly, I cannot help but recall the Sex and the City movie. Although I would not mind dressing up as Carrie Bradshaw all other times of the year, I keep coming back to the scene when Miranda complains women only have two choices on Halloween. As the more feminist voice of the crew, Miranda subtly points out that costumes are a mere extension of feminine stereotypes, given the choice of sexy nurse or witch.

If we’re using Sex and the City as an authority on female cultural habits (let’s be honest, who isn’t), why on Halloween do many self-respecting women take any costume idea and tack slutty to it?  Truly anything can be slutty from an angel, devil, pumpkin to Little Red Riding Hood. Halloween has become a guilt-free day where wearing those hooker heels is just part of a disguise and not because you feel like showing a bit more leg.

There’s nothing wrong with hiking up your skirt if you want to, but the issue is simply that if Halloween is a time where you can be anything you imagine, women are choosing to be sluts. We do not live in a society where it is unacceptable to show cleavage or wear miniskirts, yet we still relish a time when we’re allowed to unleash our repressed sexual deviant nature.

For the Celtics, Halloween was the New Year’s celebration and dressing up involved the process of telling fortunes as well as parades celebrating saints, angels, devils, and commemorating the dead.

America has clearly made a leap from the original fall festival, but we still associate the holiday with its devilish roots. Maybe Halloween allows us the freedom to use our imaginations and embody what we are not. So if we will never be Betty Boop or a flapper from the twenties, then why not celebrate a holiday that focuses on deception and really objectify ourselves?

While we’re pretending, I think I’ll be Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Only sluttier, of course. He wears fishnets, right?

80's girl, American culture, angel, army girl, Betty Boop, celebration, Celtic tradition, costume, devil, dress, feminine stereotypes, half-naked ghosts, halloween, holiday, Little Red Riding Hood, Max, Miranda, pumpkin, rapper, sex and the city, sexy cats, sexy nurse, sluts, Where the Wild Things Are, witch Hide