Why girls shouldn't dress in sexy costumes for Halloween: an exercise in positive discrimination.

By George Berry

So you’ve read Flo’s article about the trend of women dressing revealingly for Halloween, and why doing so is putting back their gender a century, and if you haven’t then stop reading here and follow this link to do so here.

I feel like the word “patriarchy” is used to basically whitewash a subject with a buzzword. It’s true that men expect certain things of women that we probably shouldn’t, such as being in good shape with an obvious care to your hygiene and physical appearance, but isn’t that exactly what you’d expect in a man (or mate of the same gender)? A lot of issues can be put both ways, the status quo not only perpetuates the trend of racy costumes but also puts pressure on men in similar ways.

Now, I’m not even going to pretend that men have it worse off because we don’t (regardless of what neck-bearded basement dwellers may tell you), but issues shouldn't have ‘sides’. Life isn’t a football match (although it does involve roughly the same amount of misogynistic wankers), but there are a few things that Flo said that really troubled me as an open-minded male, the majority of which could be found in a single sweeping and rather offensive statement.

“'Sexy' costumes are degrading and the only reason women wear them is because men have told them that's what they look good in.”

So apparently all sexy costumes are degrading? To who, exactly? The women who wear them or the men who are so weak-willed that they are hypnotized by a touch of skin? Please, I have the internet, their Halloween nurse is like an episode of Barney the Dinosaur to these porn-weary eyes. If they dress as a stripper, then cool, that’s their prerogative. If they want attention drawn to their body then cool, again, that is totally up to them, so why does it have to be degrading? Showing off their body doesn’t detract from anything else going on within their head, their personality doesn’t fall off with their clothing, and wearing less doesn’t mean that they are then bound to the first man who comes along and drags them into his cave as he grunts and shits his loincloth (because apparently we are all cavemen).

Can’t a woman, no, a human being feel good in what they wear just because, oh I don’t know, they like their bodies? Statements like the aforementioned one just cast judgement, ironically oppressing those that they claim are oppressed by the zeitgeist that only exists within their warped view of the world. Do you really think that this would work the other way around?

Here’s a scenario for you; a girl turns up to a party in a sumo suit painted orange with a face on it, essentially, a giant pumpkin; who judges her? Not the girls who think being proud of your body and confident in it is equivalent to shackling themselves in the kitchen, and more importantly, not the men who are far too concerned with having a good time to really give much of a crap about whether or not she’s nearly nude. If you reversed the roles would the men wouldn’t judge or would they simply continue to not give a shit, as is our perpetual stereotype? This leads me on nicely to the second part of that banal statement.

Why the hell is it my fault? Apparently, men have to tell women that being near-naked looks sexually appealing as if it’s some close-held secret, aside from the biological fact that being naked suggest the bumping of uglies. Do I really need to remind them that, in general, men and women find different things attractive? The female form is attractive to men, so it goes without saying that, in general, sultry costumes are alluring to us, but am I going to kick them out of my party if they don’t come wearing nothing but tracing paper and a suitcase full of Daddy issues? When have you ever overhead a guy at a party (who isn’t an obvious creep and anomaly to this hypothetical situation) say “Yeah, her Indiana Jones costume might be technically accurate, but what a bitch, she’s degrading her tits by not showing them off”.

Oh that’s right, never.

The only people who judge these costumes are the people who think they are degrading, while those poor degraded women are too busy enjoying themselves to really give half a dried, cracked crap about what shat in their frosted flakes that morning.

I was also linked a video (which you can view here) in which a small group of ladies essentially poined out that if they want to go to a party as a teacher or a nurse or a zombie pirate spaceman they'd end up going to a costume shop to find that the clothes are all revealing, which apparently is an issue. I say ‘apparently’ simply because it isn’t an issue at all, and you know why? Because they shouldn’t have gone to a costume shop if they wanted an accurate representation of what they were trying to project with their costume. Instead of expecting a costume shop to keep a stock of “day to day teacher” costumes, how about they go to a charity shop, pick up a pair of suit trousers, a tweed jacket, white blouse and horn rimmed glasses and some tests to mark? Is it perhaps because they only give a shit about representing a strong female role provided it doesn’t involve them actually using their head to move beyond the one shop well known for exaggerating themes and stereotypes?

And you see, here is the problem; a lot of people are what I like to describe as the ‘fair weather righteous’, which basically means that they have morals as long as they don’t affect themselves or make their life harder in any way. Want to be a Nurse? Get some scrubs and a clip-board. Want to be a school girl? Then get your old school jacket and a pair of trousers or a skirt or whatever. Don’t want to dress in a sexy costume?

Well then, don’t dress up in a sexy costume.

Simples.