As the fall season arrives, Halloween shops begin to open. Inside are racks upon racks of colorful outfits, props, and accessories, overly priced and cheaply made. Every year, there are a majority of the same costumes with a few new ones here and there to appeal to new trends and obsessions. One aspect which will never change about Halloween costumes are how offensive a lot of them can be. Dressing up for this fun holiday is a blast, but many take it too far in their choice of apparel. This is the true horror story of Halloween.
One type of offensive Halloween costume is those which are either cultural appropriation or demeaning to one’s culture. First off, clothing which is specific to a culture is not a costume, it is a part of someone and their values. Wearing a poncho and sombrero to be Mexican is not funny or cool, it is racist. Conical hats, kimonos, headdresses, these are all examples of culturally offensive Halloween costumes. Yes, the idea of Halloween is to dress up in something one typically does not wear, but someone else’s culture is not a costume. It is not okay for a woman who is not a part of the Muslim culture to dress up in an hijab to do so for Halloween. Articles of clothing which represent one’s culture often are linked to discrimination in America. It is not fair for one to have a laugh out of wearing someone’s cultural garb when someone from said culture is discriminated against every day for wearing the same clothing.
Another type of offensive Halloween costumes is that of the sexist variety. One step into the women’s section of a Halloween store will reveal the definition of sexism. Women’s costumes are for whatever reason always “sexy”. It does not matter what the actual costume is, it must be physically revealing and demeaning. Take Captain America for example. The men’s costume for Captain America looks just like Steve Rogers in either the comics or the movies for both male adults and children. This includes his suit, mask, shield, and boots. He looks like the super soldier he is meant to be. The woman’s costume on the other hand is a skirt and revealing top in Captain America’s colors. This is the same for a little girl’s costume. If a young girl wants to buy a Captain America costume, her options are to wear a skirt (which is fine if this is what she wants to wear) or purchase her costume from the boy’s department. Women’s costumes are unncessarily “sexy” for almost all characters or ideas. Somehow Halloween costume designers make sexy costumes for characters such as Barney, Scooby-Doo, Pacman, Olaf, and Mario. Even food is made sexy for female costumes.
Sadly, there are even more kinds of costumes which are disgustingly offensive. Dressing up as victims is in no way amusing. There are costumes for domestic violence victims and those of tragedies such as the Boston Marathon bombing and the Malaysian Airline disaster. On this note, any sort of zombified celebrity or victim is not a tasteful costume idea. Dressing up as someone who has died, and dressing up as a dead version of someone who has died are two completely different things. Wearing a JFK costume is fine, wearing a JFK costume with a bullet hole in your head is not fine. There is no humor in tragic accidents. Wearing a costume of a bloody Steve Irwin while carrying a stuffed stingray is not funny. Dressing up as the demolished twin towers is not funny. It is offensive. Because it is Halloween and a majority of people are all dressed up, some think it is the time to reveal just how racist and insensitive they can be. Showing up at someone’s door in a KKK uniform is not a joke. Wearing a skin-tight skeleton dress with a measuring tape around your waist and a name tag reading “Anna Rexia” minimizes the cruel reality of victims with eating disorders.
Halloween costumes are meant to be fun and light-hearted, often even scary and terrifying. There is no reason to minimize someone’s culture, body, or poke fun at seriously social issues. Hopefully, one day, costumes such as these will be removed from racks in stores.
