The Next Generation of Halloween Costumes
I love Halloween. When I was a kid, I loved binging on chocolate and trading Gummy bears for my brother’s coveted Kit Kats. My costumes ranged from the typical (princess, witch) to the imaginative (Raggedy Annie doll, the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz). However, as I’ve gotten older Halloween has become a different holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to a booze-fueled night partying with most of my college classmates at a college-wide dance party. However, I wish Halloween was still about who had the most creative costume rather than who can show the most cleavage.
I actually don’t mind the “slutty” costume aspect to Halloween too much. If you’ve got it, flaunt it (and all that jazz). However, what concerns me most are the skanky costumes targeted towards teens and pre-teens (and even toddlers!?). According to these two articles, there are “Lolita” costumes for girls now (for those of you who don’t know, Lolita is a 12 year old fictional character who is raped repeatedly by a pedophile in the book by Russian novelist Nabokov. I adored the book, but dressing my younger cousin in an outfit associated with Lolita is a different story). This worries me because it is another sign of the trend towards the hyper-sexualization of girls in our society – at increasingly young ages. What happened to the days when girls wanted to be a Pink Power Ranger instead of a “Dark Angel” – an outfit complete with fishnets and a lace-up bodice. Yeah, that’s a costume for tweens (ages 11-14), not twenty-somethings.
Since I don’t have children, there’s not a lot I can do about this trend. If I ever do have kids, they will not be allowed to wear such racy outfits until they are at least 17. (Ahh, I’ll be such a control freak of a mother). However, I think Halloween is still a fun holiday! Here are a list of costumes that would be entertaining to wear – even if they don’t show that much skin.
1. Pac Man and a Ghost – This is a great costume for two people. One person dresses up as a big Pac Man (or Pac Woman). The other person dresses up as a ghost and chases Pac Man around all night.
2. Edward Scissorhands – Ever since I saw this picture on Black Eiffel I’ve wanted to dress one of my guy friends like this.
3. Raggedy Ann or Andy – Sure, I dressed like this as a child, but I think people of any age could pull it off.
4. Pirate and Ninja – Depends on which you prefer, of course.
5. Your favorite politician — I just can’t get the election out of my head. If you want to dress up as the Presidential candidates, there are face masks of Obama and McCain at local Halloween stores. However, you could just wear a suit (or suit dress) and put an American flag pin on the lapel.
So what are Harlequin and I dressing as for Halloween? I wish we could post pictures, since we decided to dress as our alter egos this year. I’m going to be a life-sized baby doll (Dollface, get it?). Harlequin is going as Harley Quinn, the lovable character from the Batman cartoon. None of our friends know about our blog so I doubt anyone will get the reference. We thought it’d be fun, though!
What are you all dressing as for Halloween? Have any creative costume suggestions?
Photo Credits
A joe the plumber costume with a wife beater t-shirt and a screwdriver in the butt crack would be funny.
post pictures! it sounds so adorable!!! <3
mermaid
I’m not much of a Halloween freak, so I usually don’t dress up. One year though my best friend and I dressed up as Mario and Luigi and the year before that I was a pirate. When I was a kid there was a year when I was Minnie Mouse and another year where I was a genie. I remember the year I was a genie, the costume we bought showed midriff and my mom made me buy an undershirt, which pissed me off big time. In retrospect, I’m glad she made my third grade self cover up. It was cold that Halloween! ;)
Amen! Thus far, my 11yo DD hasn’t made any moves toward the skankier costumes. She plans on being a vampire. The Bela Lugosi kind, as opposed to the Elvira one. ;) I have an Elvira-type dress, but, er, it’s not the sort of thing I wear trick-or-treating. The heels are a killer! *gg*
I had to talk my 8yo DS out of going as Jason, though. He doesn’t even know who Jason is! He just heard some of his friends talking about it. Instead, he’s going as the Grim Reaper. Not much of a step up, but I’ll take it. If I really wanted to talk him out of it, I’d give him a lecture on Ankou from Breton mythology, but nah. I picked up a rather homely black dress at the Goodwill for him. A few shreds in the hem and a hood, and he’ll be good to go!