In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Happy Slut-o-Ween!

Jill

sexy_vintage_witch.jpg
My costume: Sexy feminist witch.*

I love Halloween. Love it. But I hate the conversations about it. I hate going to the store and having costume choices range from Sexy Nurse to Sexy Cop to Sexy Kitty. I hate the self-righteous condemnations of women who wear sexy costumes. I hate the term “Slut-o-Ween.” I hate that it’s turned into another opportunity to bash women — through insulting costumes (the “sexy Ethnic woman” costume, the “sexy female worker” costume), through slut-shaming, through public hand-wringing over all those scantily-clad women running around in public. I hate that it’s one giant expression of how “sexy” is more about consumerism and posing for men as opposed to anything related to the down-and-dirty business of actual sex. I hate that creativity has given way to male fantasy. I hate that it takes a holiday for women to feel like they have permission to be publicly sexual. I hate the dressed-up version of sexuality that, for a lot of us, is the only accessible option.

In short: Halloween is really, really frustrating when processed through the feminist filter. But I still love it. And I’ll be celebrating it in Germany, even though most people apparently don’t celebrate it here. I’m sure later tonight I’ll really be missing New York.

What are you all dressing up as?

*Not really.

107 thoughts on Happy Slut-o-Ween!

  1. For the Halloween party I attended the other night, I went as Medusa–a feminist icon who is sadly misunderstood. I had great fun weaving snakes into my hair and painting them up my arms. Plus I got to wear pseudo-Grecian robes, and that’s always fun. (Would’ve been more fun if I’d hemmed the draping cape-y thing a bit higher, so I wouldn’t have been tripping over it.)

    Today, since I have to work, I am only doing a sort-of costume–a short black dress with black tights and jewelry that looks sort of witchy. I’m a post-modern witch today. Who is extremely anxious about the cleavage revealed by this dress. It’s not a “slutty” dress, but it is a lot of cleavage. How much is too much if you’re teaching?

  2. Women didn’t dress like that 90 years ago when adults were celebrating Halloween.

    BTW, that witch in the picture looks like another witch that I am used to seeing: ‘Sabrina’

    I also hate that women must be publicly sexual on a certain holiday as well. They have the standard policewoman outfit (short sleeve top and long pants) in stores that will really kick ass. Maybe some of you women should consider that one. Better than the “slut cop” uniforms that made its debut just five years earlier.

    …BTW, I’m not dressing up for tonight. Sorry to disappoint you, Jill.

  3. I just pulled out my new goth-loli outfit and hung out in Harajuku. (It’s already evening of Halloween in Japan.)

  4. It’s a dizzying exercise to try to figure out what instances of provocative dress allow “women to feel like they have permission to be publicly sexual” and which are the manifestations of patriarchal oppression.

    If there’s overwhelming societal pressure for women — and, increasingly, young girls — to be “sexy (whatever)” on Halloween, how, exactly, is that not a bad thing? If not inherently, at least in practice, in many instances?

    Scantily clad one night a year, fueled by social and marketing pressure: Self-expression, or capitulation to decidedly non-feminist influences?

  5. It’s Halloween here in Australia and sadly enough no one dresses up here much. Me and my friends always dress up and reward the few brave children that wander the streets with candy.
    And I’m a doctor. No short skirts for me. Good old long pants like they scrubs they really wear.
    I wasn’t allowed to dress up as a pirate again this year.

  7. Malificent from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, in her dragon form. (And I’d like to point out that in that movie, the title character pricked her finger on the distaff, not the spindle. Malificent was clearly framed!)

    Past years’ costumes have included Chris Lightfellow, a female knight from a video game who actually wears sensible armor; Lucia, a character from another video game who is in fact a minor goddess; and a goat-girl.

  8. 25 name tags, each with a different name: an identity crisis. And yes, some of the names will be boy names.

  9. I think I’m going to go as the Paper Bag Princess (a la Robert Munch). I love that story! And all it requires is a sassy paper bag, a crown and some dirt on my face!

  10. The one good thing about slutty Halloween costumes is that if you see a woman wearing a non-slutty costume there’s a good chance it’s not store-bought. The thing I hate about Halloween is the same thing I hate about other holidays – it’s so commercial.

    My costume: slutty girlscout. The slutty part comes from the merit badges I earned and put on my sash, though, not a short, tight skirt. And it’s homemade, not store-bought. And it was a team effort. My husband is a slutty boyscout and our dog is a smore. Pics here:
    http://www.elainevigneault.com/smore-dog-costumes.html

  11. I’m living overseas and was going to be a sorceress (because I love swooshly hooded gowns) but my boss put a ban on costumes (and wigs and masks and simply outlandish work outfits for that matter) for employees where I work.

    Boo indeed!

  13. I love Halloween more than I could adequately describe, and I hate the “slutty” costumes largely because they’re uncreative. I went to a Hallween dance this weekend, and I was the only girl not in a short skirt or revealing top, and we had several “sexy German barmaids,” etc. Of course, I got rather ignored because of my costume (I was an MRI, so I dressed in solid black and painted my face).

    That said, yay Halloween!!!!!

  14. You guys are lucky that you get to costume yourselves and go to grown-up parties. I’m taking my 3 1/2-year-old trick-or-treating. Not that I don’t think it will be fun, but I wish I could do both. I don’t even know of any Halloween parties for grownups in my area. My childless and empty-nest friends are staying home to give out candy.

    Happy hallowee!

  15. I’ve been thinking a LOT lately about the sexy/slutty costume options that are available to women. I’ve also been struggling to come up with a good costume idea for this most important holiday. Then it hit me.

    I’m going as “a sexy halloween costume.” Meaning, mixing all the sluttified costumes together in a way that (really) should become far less sexy… travesty would be the aim here. Everything comes from my wardrobe and from friends’, so it was free. Hopefully it will be read more as a statement of sorts and less as just another sexy costume, but we’ll see how it goes.

    pirate socks (blk/wht striped)
    garter belt
    school girl skirt
    maid apron
    (not sure which top)
    pirate bandanna
    cat ears/tail
    fairy/bumble bee wings

  17. I’ve been thinking a LOT lately about the sexy/slutty costume options that are available to women. I’ve also been struggling to come up with a good costume idea for this most important holiday. Then it hit me.

    I’m going as “a sexy halloween costume.” Meaning, mixing all the sluttified costumes together in a way that (really) should become far less sexy… travesty would be the aim here. Everything comes from my wardrobe and from friends’, so it was free. Hopefully it will be read more as a statement of sorts and less as just another sexy costume, but we’ll see how it goes.

    pirate socks (blk/wht striped)
    garter belt
    school girl skirt
    maid apron
    (not sure which top)
    pirate bandanna
    cat ears/tail
    fairy/bumble bee wings

    (computer is messing up- please remove double postings)

  18. Jill-

    There’s no need to participate in the ridiculous Culture Wars (TM).

    The controversy over Halloween is a sham. Halloween is about dressing silly and eating candy and watching horrible movies. This year, I spiked my hair into a mohawk and am planning on watching Plan 9 From Outer Space with my wife and friends. And eating a lot of candy.

    See? Fun. Getting suckered into arguing about Halloween? Not fun. Don’t let ’em get to you.

  21. I’m wearing pajama bottoms, and old t-shirt, slippers and a robe, and I’m carrying around a baby doll. I’ve got burp cloths and baby wipes coming out of my pockets. I’ve got big black circles under my eyes. I’m a Mombie.

  22. I don’t dress up every year, but when I do, I dress up slutty and try (often succeed) to pick up. I guess I just embrace the whole slut-o-ween thing. I mean, I am a slut, but it’s one of the very few times in a year I dress to publicly announce that.

  23. The last time I dressed up (last Christmas) I was Santa and my husband dressed up in the “sexy Santa’s assistant” get up. Much more interesting.

  25. I’m dressed as a Grease extra – a 1950s sock-hopper in a blue wrap-around “poodle skirt” (with a sailboat on it) and white T and a blue kerchief around my neck. And bobby socks and white shoes. Hand jive done on demand.

    I went to a party Saturday where a lot of the costumes were slut’oween type of costumes, and I felt a bit off about it – it felt like a posing thing more than a fun haloween thing. And none of the non-sexy folks at the party were dressed up. People shouldn’t feel like they need to look out-of-the-box-sexy in a costume to play with Halloween.

  26. Fortunately after a long Internet search I was able to find a Black Queen from a chessboard costume which while fun and awesome, is not by any means a sexed-up costume. I plan to announcing chess moves a lot in it.

  27. Itā€™s not a ā€œsluttyā€ dress, but it is a lot of cleavage. How much is too much if youā€™re teaching?

    I suppose it depends on whom you’re teaching,alsojill.

    My costume is rather pedestrian. I have an old sport coat my grandfather wore and a fedora. I’ll dress up with a tie and slacks, and a friend of mine is loaning me an old-style camera with the flashbulb (it doesn’t work, so it’s not really valuable or anything). So I’ll be one of those old-school reporters with the “Press” tag in the hatband of my fedora.

  28. I really wanted to go as sexy 1900s steel conglomerate tycoon, but it was too much work, so I ended up as Little Ms. Muffet.

  29. I wore my husband’s old US Navy coveralls, a polkadot headband and red lipstick, as my iconic namesake Rosie the Riveter.

    The best costume at this party was a guy who came as a thought bubble. He wore all black, with a cloud-shaped piece of dry erase board around his neck, and smaller clouds going along one arm. He brought a pen. We took turns putting thoughts on the board then posing for photographs with him standing behind us positioning the thought bubble. It was very fun, we had a 1980’s rocker thinking “Mine goes to 11!”, a mad scientist (sitting next to Barbarella) thinking “I taught your girlfriend that thing you like” , and a giant squid thinking “boobies”.

  30. There was a Medusa at my party Saturday.

    I’m don’t know what I am doing for tonight, I haven’t really thought about it. I might do The Shadow.

    I love the “Identity Crisis” and “Not a Cylon” costumes.

  31. No trick or treat on Halloween in Germany and quite a few people are pissed that this trend is coming over anyway. Kids used to go dressed-up on the 31st of december and sing songs to get sweets. But grown-ups don’t wear costumes until carneval in february. By then, quite a few parties will be coming up, just not really in Hamburg.

    The holiday in Germany is always on a sunday so people rarely notice. It’s called more like the original All Hallows Eve -> Allerheiligen.

  32. Oh, I think my post either got lost or banned to the moderation queue, possibly for using words that start with S and end with -exy and -lut? Excuse any repeated comments.

    Well, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the costume choices available to women, and have also been trying to figure out what to be for Halloween. Then it hit me.

    I”ll go as a “s -exy halloween costume,” meaning I’m mixing and matching all those typical costumes until they’re no longer actually s -exy. So far the costume has elements of a pirate, maid, school girl, fairy/bumblebee, and cat. I got all the pieces from my and friends’ wardrobes, aka free. Here’s hoping it will be seen as commentary and not as just another s -lutty costume.

  33. I had the brilliant idea this morning to dress up as Facebook (i.e. wear royal blue and white, get a whiteboard to hang off my back for my “wall”, get a giant blue-and-white foam finger – from either the Leafs or Jays paraphernalia stores – and go around ‘poking’ people, steal blank address labels from work and stick them all over me indicating various apps such as “Catbook” and “On Notice!”, etc.) but I couldn’t get it together in time. But I put it out there for anyone who wants to grab it!

    I went to a Hallowe’en party on Saturday as a whacked-out surgeon (surgery scrubs, stethoscope/surgery mask, splattered with blood, carrying a meat cleaver and a dismembered arm; my name tag said “Dr Grey” and if anyone asked, I was Meredith Gray “AND I JUST COULDN”T TAKE IT ANYMORE.”)

  35. So, yeah… I ended up with a pretty typical pirate costume as the result of being a huge fan of PotC and not having any more than $25 to spend on the thing. It sort of tries to be a “sexy” costume, but doesn’t really come across that way.

    A lot – a LOT – of the women at my University are doing the sexy schoolgirl thing, which sort of grates on me in a way that other “sexy” costumes don’t.

  36. I’m sick of the all-or-nothing attitude towards sex and I’m sick of being expected to despise what I desire.

  39. Halloween is a celtic custom, not a continental tradition, although it has made inroads in france in the past ten years — the french see it as more american cultural imperialism, like pizza hut and mcdonald’s.

    Some german kids get dressed up as farmers for erntedankfest — a german thanksgiving. The adult party time is Fasching, which extends from Three Kings’ Day to Aschenmittwoch. That’s the time for balls of all sorts, including masked balls.

  40. Yeah, but Tom, whatā€™re you dressing up as!?

    Guy With A Chip On His Shoulder.

    Least expensvie costume ever.

  41. Ironic that the only stories I’ve read about slutoween are in the feminist echo chamber. You probably will get some strange looks in Germany, I went to a party Sat night where a german woman was celebrating her 1st halloween. She was dressed as a serving wench. Is it acceptable to say she looked smoking hot in her fishnets and boots ?

  43. Happy Hallowe’en, everyone! I can’t wait to dress up as a zombie and take my kids out trick-or-treating. Some guy on t.v the other day described why Hallowe’en rocks-no relatives, no presents, no family dinners, just dress up and drink yourself silly. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the night, I know I will!

  44. I LOVE Halloween. So much, that we have “o-ween’s” all year round. My personal favorite being “christ-o-ween” where we wear christmas themed costumes. But I digress….

    I always make my costume (I was a theatre major, I can’t help it). This year, I was Cleopatra and my husband was a nickel. We can never coordinate costumes because we can’t agree on anything.

    Next year, I already know that I want to go as a cat scratch post (cardboard box, covered in carpet with stuff cats glued to it. yesssssssss)

  46. I love Halloween and let my daughter talk us into doing a family costume – all Charlotte’s web -she’s Fern, the baby is Wilbur, I’m Charlotte and dh is Templeton the Rat.

    She was between Charlotte and princess – I would’ve dressed as phlegm if it meant she would choose sometjhing other than princess.

  48. Here’s a tip: If you don’t like having conversations about Halloween, don’t have one. (Same thing with abortions, n’est-ce pas?)

    It’s this kind of reductionist analysis that has destroyed feminism. You gals are just plain no fun. Sexy is not evil. Male desire is not evil. If you don’t want to look sexy, try killing the bug that lives in your ass and live a little, honey.

  49. I recycled a costume I made 3 years ago: dissected lab mouse!

    The thoracic cavity is closed, so I painted a rib cage on some pink long underwear. And the abdominal cavity is open, so I made liver, stomach, spleen, and intestines out of painted pantyhose stuffed with polyfill. Last, I have a big skin with white fur complete with mouse head and tail. I drape this over myself and fasten it to my arms and legs. Fun!

    Yay Halloween!

  51. I was going to go as a cowgirl (but not a particularly sexy one, denim mini aside), but I had a revelation on Saturday, leading me to wear my shirt, skirt, hat, and guns backward and go as Reverse Cowgirl.

    The problem with going as a sex position? Guys you’ve barely met feel free to tell you their thoughts on said position. Or ask you your thoughts on it, which is somehow creepier.

  52. I made my own costume this year. Patchwork dollie with poofy hair and a HUGE skirt… not sexy, just silly.

    The mistahs going as the Halloween Fairy, complete with pigtails, wings, glitter and sparkly pumpkin lights wrapped over his dress. Much fun.

    Also, we carved weighted companion cube pumpkins, because we are geeks.

  53. “I hate that itā€™s turned into another opportunity to bash women”
    Are you fucking serious?
    There isn’t actually any pressure on anyone to be ‘scantily clad’, it is a choice after all. I’ve never heard of anyone dressing up as say a ‘sexy schoolgirl’ because she was forced to, which is how you’re making this out to be.
    I’m not against feminism in certain lights but I am definitely against the kind which thinks everything is designed to appeal to male fantasy, it makes me sick to think of what our society is going to be like when feminism is through with it, women will have more and more power then we’re back to square one.

    I won’t be dressing up this year, but I will be shooting trick-or-treaters with a water gun from my brothers bedroom window. I feel that its much more fun.

  54. I tend to agree that the issue with most of the “sexy nurse” “sexy angel” etc costumes is more lack of creativity than any issue with how much skin is or isn’t showing. I dislike those costumes because it really is just another way to try and make women posture sexually for men(generally, at least, I think. The only lesbians I’ve really talked about the issue with didn’t find anything sexy about the particular costume we were talking about, so I’m assuming the target audience is male) rather than thinking about what makes them feel sexy/what sex is to them. and the lack of choice-if you don’t have the time/motivation to make a costume for yourself, you’re pretty much stuck in a “sexy (insert female stereotype here)” costume. This, more than any desire for slut shaming is why I rant about the costumes like that.

  55. I love Halloween. Making a costume is the best part, which is why I’ve never gone down the sexy anything road — who wants a mass-produced costume when you can usually throw together something more exciting? (Or, if it’s a really crazy year, slap on some facepaint and liquid latex and wear torn clothes and snack on the flesh of the living. Either one works.)

    I have a deep overfondness for steampunk and had next to no time to put together a costume, so I wore a pinstripe skirt, white blouse, men’s suit vest, ridiculous pirate-y jacket, giant warm cap, elbow-length black gloves, and army surplus goggles. Insta-air pirate.

    I just wish I had the time/energy to buy and spraypaint a Nerf gun all brass-y and metal for a Jules Verne-style raygun or something. Or bought a mechanical pocketwatch.

  56. My wife is wearing her pajams to work today. She always wears her pajamas to work on Halloween. Not only is she more comfortable than usual but she also gets loads of “what a great costume! Why didn’t I think of that?”

  57. Last year, I attended a university Halloween party as a leather jacket bound slacker.

    This year not dressing up…going to wait for the few trick or treaters to come to my apartment door.

    Next year…am considering dressing up as a WWII era Nationalist Chinese Army officer to pay homage to an uncle who died fighting the Imperial Japanese Army. Unfortunately, have no costume-making skills (Are there places one can recommend where I can learn?). Will also need to know the materials/historical details required.

  58. To Lisa #30:

    My sister was going to do that, but in a nonsexy way, and call herself “Captain Halloween.”

  59. I’m sitting here reading this at work, surrounded by women who are all clothed at least neck to knee as a scarecrow, a pumpkin, a clown, a flapper, a male vampire and a spider lady. I’m wearing what may be the skimpiest costume present, rainbow-embroidered sweater and tights, with baggy shorts.

  61. As long as extremely attractive women go out in extremely brief costuming for the purpose of drawing attention to the costume I’m going to enjoy it passively.

  62. I have this great peacock-print skirt that I paired with a purple shirt and lots of teal and green jewelry and makeup and a few peacock feathers – I think it looks awesome.

    I’m also wearing some tortoiseshell-print shoes with it, and I was tempted to find some other animal-print shirt, make a couple of lucky rabbit’s feet into earrings, grab a pith helmet, and go as a poacher. Maybe next year.

  63. I am Halloween Marilyn – black 50s dress, short dark hair all curly, false eyelashes, dramatic makeup, beauty mark. I’m showing more cleavage than my boss would like, but I do that fairly often anyway …

    I LOVE the Reverse Cowgirl idea!

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  67. I was planning to go as Sexy Pope Benedict, in fishnets, miter, red shoes, and shortie vestments, but I couldn’t afford enough brocade fabric for the robe. In the end, I settled on Amy Winehouse; beehive, mole, eye makeup, and attitude, and I’m done. And I’m bringing an eyeliner pen with me to let everyone give me tattoos throughout the night.

  68. I am going as a pissed-off person who got inveigled into making a fucking bee costume and a fucking dragonfly costume and ate all the Kit-Kats, which were stale. And I am NOT bitter.

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  70. I’m not dressing up this year, as I couldn’t come up with anything to top my costume from last year: “Cultural Appropriation Masquerading as Spiritual Materialism”.

    It was a wearable collage made to resemble the shapes of samurai armor, worn over a kimono. The collage was of images of the iconography of religions, predominantly Hindu and Buddhist, but also including Islam, Judaism, Wicca, as well as genericized forms of African, Australian and Native American spiritualities.

    In no small part, the costume was a method of critiquing some aspects of the white community of Boulder, Colorado.

  72. Our department dressed as The Seven Deadly Sins – Minnesota Style, and I was Gluttony, so I dressed up as Marjorie Johnson, the winningest baker of the MN State Fair.

  73. I went as a punkish zombie in a leopard print mini skirt and construction boots with green hair, mostly because I wanted to and had not had the opportunity to pair skirt with boots in public yet.

    It would have worked out wonderfully if I hadn’t torn my ACL in a rugby game just before the party and had to hobble around with a ridiculous leg brace, no one could see my skull socks!

  74. I went as a zombie with tattered clothes and oozing, rotted skin – all handmade stuff and makeup I did myself.

    I went with my sister last night to buy her costume, and I saw one costume that damn near made me cry. It was a female construction worker with pigtails and glossy, slightly parted lips and heaving bosoms covered by a construction cone bra wearing a tiny denim mini skirt. They were calling it “Stud Finder”.

    Don’t ever let us forget we’re only good for one thing…
    http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/rasta/7694-main.jpg

  76. I’m at work right now, and not actually in costume, but in case something exciting happens this evening, I am ready. I have staved off cutting my hair for months so that I could be Elle Driver from Kill Bill. Well, a brunette Elle Driver. I’ve got a plastic samauri sword and an eyepatch and a professional-looking black-and-white suit and pointy boots and everything. But nowhere to go.

  77. I LOVE HALLOWEEN! My best friend and I are going to dress up as Fairies and go out to dinner. My costume is really cool, a black vampy blouse with long drapy sleeves over the top of a deep burgandy velvet dress, black homemade wings tied with a burgandy sparkle ribbon. It’s really pretty.

  78. I’m stealing a line from Adam’s Family Values and dressing as a serial killer — they look just like everyone else. šŸ™‚

  79. I decided to try something different from my usual overly sexy party look, I went as a business man. Full suit, wig and mustache, I even padded my waist to hide my hips. It was really pretty fun except the real men kept shaking my hand really hard and slapping me on the back all night.

  80. Halloween is a pretty new thing here, but it’s the only time of year when people have costume parties so I suppose that’s the reason it’s gaining popularity. Plus all the marketing.

    I’m going as Herr Flick.
    A brilliant last minute costume, since pretty much everything it’s made up of is everyday objects. Now I will just have to practice saying “Ve vill find out” and “I vill have you shot!”.

  82. Triana Orpheus from the Venture Bros! Unfortunately, my friends didn’t finish their Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend costumes, so I have no reason to wear mine. Sob. ):

  83. I had no time, so I just did what I usually do and masqueraded as a grown-up all day.

    Nobody caught me.

  84. I’m wearing an orange t-shirt with a sequinned witch on the front, giving out candy to the neighborhood kids. Since the only people likely to be commenting tonight are in the same boat I am, who’s up for a discussion of favorite candy?

  85. this year i went as a post-apocalyptic zombie hunter. i wore a leather vest, a camo skirt, my tactical boots, and i carried a fake shotgun and a baseball bat. it was fun. šŸ™‚ last year i was a hideous blood-and-gore covered zombie.

  86. I am probably going to be unpopular around here, but I agree with the critics– even Joel Stein. I know that Holloween wasn’t, in ancient times, a kids’ holiday, but it was during the time when I grew up. In fact, it was the only time when kids could go out at night without parental supervision. It was the only time when we could eat as much candy as we wanted.

    The way that adults have appropriated this holiday and turned it into a sex festival while at the same time neutering the kids’ fun– no more going out with the other kids (you have to have an adult present), no more going out after dark, no more eating all the candy (the adults parcel it out)– is really bad. The fact is, adults can find any excuse they want to for dressing up and acting out erotic fantasies. Halloween was the only vehicle for kids to have this sort of fun. We’ve stolen something that wasn’t ours.

  87. ooh, favorite candy…that’s tough. i loved steve almond’s book candyfreak, because i am one. i love dark chocolate, and sugary junk like nerds and jolly ranchers. mmmmm!

  89. OHHHHH, ZP, I adore Jolly Ranchers, especially cherry. You reminded me that one of my favorite candies, that’s kind of hard to find anymore, is Brach’s cinnamon buttons. I probably ate enough of those things as a kid to keep 20 dentists in fancy cars, but luckily — for my parents — only got cavities as an adult, off their dental plan.

  90. I’m sitting here wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and elf-ears (people have been doing double-takes at me all day), and halfway through this thread, it occurs to me: blue longsleeve t-shirt rolled up, grey pants, tin-foil intercom, elf- ears. I’m going as Sexy Spock.

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  94. I hate the word slutty. I don’t think the costumes sold to women are slutty. I think they’re insanely patriarchal, and it pains me to even walk around on campus around Halloween.

    I have no issues with dressing sexy, hell, I love to dress sexy any day of the year. But not when it’s men telling me to dress sexy for their pleasure. No. No, thank you.

    I realize I’m the party pooper when we discuss shit like this amongst my classmates, but I can’t stand it. Sex is fun, sexuality is fantastic and we should all express ourselves, sexually and otherwise. But this isn’t about women’s sexuality at all, and it’s perfectly fair to critique this trend, just as it would be perfectly fair to critique labiaplasty, for example. Sure, Halloween costumes aren’t that high up on the scale of the shit we need to worry about, but they’re there, and they have an impact on society one way or another.

    That said, I’m going to be a cat macro. Im in ur party, drinkin ur booze.

  95. Pirate pirate pirate!! And a not-so-slutty one at that. It’s kind of cold out to be a scantily clad pirate… y’ar…

  96. A couple of years ago a male friend of mine dressed as a Sexy Doctor — scrub pants trimmed into short shorts, scrub shirt with the sleeves cut off and the neckline cut into a plunging V. It was a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

    Me, I am a giraffe. Sponge-painted spots on my favorite khakis and tan shirt, a fuzzy hood with fuzzy ears and horns sewed on, a stubby tail, and cut-off sleeve ends on my hands for hooves. Homemade, comfy, functional for work and bike riding and playing pool in bars, and precisely as sexy as my normal wardrobe and comfort level. Plus, you know, with the added actual sexiness of being located on someone who’s having fun and pleased with herself.

  97. Fasching, which extends from Three Kingsā€™ Day to Aschenmittwoch

    Oh, I love Achsenschmitterwochening! The parties! The mulled cider! The goodwill!

    And I hear you can skate home in other peoples’ sick.

  98. Hector, T’Pol wasn’t sexy. Someone who dresses in a skintight catsuit without, apparently, any recognition that this is a sexual signal in Earth culture, despite having lived among humans for over 10 years, and yet this costume is also totally unlike what other Vulcans dress in (including female Vulcans) and totally impractical for a person in San Francisco who’s used to living in a desert… T’Pol wasn’t sexy, she was an incomprehensible mess. They never provided even the slightest cover of explanation for *why* she wore that outfit. At least Seven of Nine had an excuse — Borg outfits are form-fitting, and supposedly her outfit helped her regulate her remaining implants.

    A sexy Vulcan would have been one who was aware of human sexuality, in touch with her own personal sexuality (as opposed to an unmarried virgin who ends up getting raped and contracting a mental venereal disease because she dared engage in a sexual act with a guy she wasn’t married to, I mean a mindmeld, and my God if mindmelds are sex then wasn’t Spock the universe’s biggest slut?) Not someone who wears a catsuit for no good reason and performs sexy massages on a human she wants while claiming it’s merely Vulcan stress relief and he’s crazy for thinking it’s got anything to do with sex.

    Actually, T’Pol is a good example of what repressive, patriarchal culture can do to someone’s sexuality. She lived in denial of her own sexual desires, got raped because she lacked any way of exploring socially taboo feelings without turning to an outlaw, pretended that she barely could stand Trip even while she was boinking him, and dressed like sex on a stick while being dismissive of the humans’ reactions to her. While I can totally accept that a species with a sex drive that literally kills people when it’s turned on, and barely exists when it’s turned off, would have such repressive attitudes, I don’t really find them sexy. Tuvok was a much sexier Vulcan, honestly; you could totally bet that he and his wife knew how to have fun during Pon Farr.

    Okay, okay, I’ll stop ranting about Star Trek now. šŸ™‚

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  100. Alara, I beg to differ. Tā€™Pol was a classic nerdette, an INTJ whose complete introversion kept her from realizing that dressing in a skintight catsuit is a sexual signal in Earth culture, because she apparently liked wearing it just because it felt comfortable. No Vulcan can be aware of human sexuality other than as an abstract concept.

    Actually, Tā€™Pol is a good example of what rational thought can do to someoneā€™s sexuality. Sexual desires are messy and irrational, so best to suppress them as much as possible and focus on the task in front of you. Then when they inevitably explode, the negative consequences are predictable.

    The nerdette unaware of her own attractiveness is a convention as old as fiction. Consider the old movie cliche of the mousy librarian-type who took off her glasses, let down her hair, and became gorgeous.

  102. I didn’t get to use it, but my costume I have on hand is Bunnicula, the vampire bunny from the James Howe kids’ books – white clothes, bunny ears and tail, kids’ sized black vampire cape (Bunnicula is white with a black triangular patch of black fur on his back, hence the kid cape, so it doesn’t extend past my tail!), and fangs. I stick with cute and fluffy the rest of the year – why change now?
    My boyfriend was going to go out as Larry Craig (suit and tie, but pants down around knees to show off your ‘wide stance’) but he decided he didn’t want to take any chances getting stuck registering as a sex offender.

  103. My boyfriend was going to go out as Larry Craig (suit and tie, but pants down around knees to show off your ā€˜wide stanceā€™) but he decided he didnā€™t want to take any chances getting stuck registering as a sex offender.

    One of the award-winning costumes at my company’s Halloween party was a guy dressed as Larry Craig, complete with his own bathroom stall that he was carrying around.

    We have some creative people here. šŸ˜‰

  105. Hereā€™s a tip: If you donā€™t like having conversations about Halloween, donā€™t have one. (Same thing with abortions, nā€™est-ce pas?)
    Itā€™s this kind of reductionist analysis that has destroyed feminism. You gals are just plain no fun. Sexy is not evil. Male desire is not evil. If you donā€™t want to look sexy, try killing the bug that lives in your ass and live a little, honey.

    take your own advice jackass. this is a conversation about Halloween, and the obvious way it trivializes women and sexualizes even young girls.
    i guess what you really mean is that anyone who’s not in agreement that women’s (and girl’s) goal in life is to stimulate male desire shouldn’t talk about, or maybe even celebrate Halloween.
    tough shit. we’re talking about it, and we’re talking about how full of shit people who think like you are.

  106. I went as a prison convict. White t-shirt, orange jumpsuit, handcuffs. When you get hot from the jumpsuit you can unzip it and tie it around your waist by the arms. The best part is that you wear it with flip-flops and can roll out of bed and into the costume — and it’s really good if you bring along contraband.

  107. I was a gypsy. In a more authentic portrayal of such, which had me covered from collarbones to feet and wrists, and with a head scarf. And I got a lot of compliments. But I prefer to only show the massive cleavage off to selected intimates.

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