I’m dressing as a sexy devil for Halloween and the patriarchy has nothing to do with it

By Elly Murrell

George Berry has already done a fantastic response to Flo’sarticle which you should read here. The kind with metaphors I can only dream to conjure up. With the male side of the argument covered I’d like to throw in my two cents.

As the title suggests I am surrendering to the Mean Girls complex and dressing up like a slutty devil for Halloween. Here is the costume in question:

The two friends that I’m going out with are also dressing up sexy for Halloween and will be attending this year as sexy zombie nurses (an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one).  Their costumes actually ticked off two of the three examples Flo gave in her blog post for unoriginal costume ideas. This year we are unfortunately the epitome of everything Flo hates about Halloween.

I’ll be honest with you and say I’m a little nervous of the approval we three may receive.  If any of you are familiar with Folkestone’s hot spot night club “Onyx”, then that’s where we’ll be celebrating our Halloween. And if you’ve been to Onyx then you’ll be aware of the sort of boozed up, drooling, lazy eyed, wandering handed “lads” that haunt the vicinity.

So you could say “Why dress like a slut if you don’t want that kind of attention?” but the truth is I’m not doing this for anyone else’s satisfaction but for my own. In the least egotistical way; I’m proud of my figure, I like the way I look. If I want to show it off in a slutty Halloween costume then I will. I’ll even let you in on a little secret, Halloween’s not the only time I’ll dress like a slut. It’s just that at Halloween I get to be a little more ridiculous with it.

If I’m being even more honest with you then yes, sometimes I like the attention I receive. This isn’t me holding up my flesh as some sort of approval sacrifice. I don’t feel degraded if an individual appreciates my physical appearance, I feel complimented and proud of the skin I’m in. I haven’t always felt this confident in the way I look, far from it, so yes I will allow myself to revel in the attention a little; besides, it’s not going to last forever.

Now this isn’t a personal attack against Flo but her post couldn’t help but bring to the forefront of my mind the fact that so many people judge women who are open with their sexuality. Girls should be allowed to dress like a slut and act like a slut and not have to be called out on it. They should be allowed to accept responsibility for these actions and not just have it played off because “they only do it for male approval”. 

There was a lot of stigma which came about with Miley Cyrus’ image revival and even more with regards to Robert Thicke’s explicit “Blurred Lines” video, both topics which have been thoroughly discussed in past “The Dutiful” blog posts.  Although I think the lyrics to Blurred Lines are beyond offensive, and that Miley is obnoxious, I don’t understand why there was such a backlash for the overt sexuality surrounded by them. What is wrong with a woman wanting to be seen as sexual?  

Not everything has to be about upholding the virtues of women or being a good role model. Why do we have to behave properly? Why do we have to keep our modesty? Is this all just an attempt to show those awful nasty male oppressors of ours that they don’t control us anymore? That we’ve moved past them and their conditions and instead we’re applying conditions onto each other, shaming girls who don’t fit the status quo of the radical feminist. You should be free to enjoy your sexuality without having to feel like you’ve betrayed your gender.  

Other people have different ideas about what feminism stands for, but for me personally I believe it should be everyone’s right to express themselves however they want as long as they aren’t affecting anyone else. If I dress like a slut it is not going to tear all your clothes off. If I want to act provocatively it won’t make a guy think that you might as well.  I am not you.

I’m sure that Flo did not intend to make anyone feel ashamed in their choice of costume; she just wanted to encourage us girls to think outside the box a little. That’s completely fine. If you’re brave enough to dress as a giant pumpkin for Halloween then go for it. That’s hilarious! But all I’m asking is that you allow us the right to dress up in stockings with our arses hanging out, and please don’t blame it on the patriarchy, I’m sure most men are sick of it too.

Before I finish I’d like to clear up one point, Halloween isn’t about having an original costume, having any kind of costume is good enough. But if we’re going  to start fussing over problem areas in our current Halloween ritual, surely it’s more of a concern that it’s the one day of the year we actively encourage children to take sweets from complete strangers, rather than girls dressing like sluts?

Nah, I’m sure it’s fine.

Image courtesy of – www.joke.co.uk

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