by Allison Hall
October is one of my favorite months. Although I dread cold weather, I do like that in October, at least in Toronto, you can usually wear a jacket, or just a shirt, or a cardie over a tank top and still be comfortable; it’s nice to be able to mix it up. But the real reason that I dig October is because of what comes at the end of the month…Halloween. I have always loved Halloween, it’s without a doubt my favorite holiday and it’s not even a real holiday!
The idea of pondering for months in advance what I’m going to dress up as and then actually putting the costume together is always the best part. I mean for one whole day you can be whatever you want! Maybe it’s the creative aspect of it, or the idea of being someone or something completely random that appeals to me, but regardless Halloween is way too much fun.
One thing that I’ve noticed, at least when it comes to female costumes, is how what you dress up as seems to drastically change as you get older. For example when I was little I always wanted to be something with gross factor, like a dead bride, or a zombie princess. It was necessary for there to be some sort of gore, because after all, fake blood is really awesome. But as I got older, like into my teens, dressing up for Halloween was no longer about the gross factor, now it was about something different, it was more about being slutty.
Have you seen Mean Girls? There is a scene where Lindsay Lohan’s character shows up to a party dressed as a sort of zombie bride complete with really gross teeth and blood. Meanwhile, all of the other girls are dressed as sexy bunnies, kittens, etc. She ends up feeling like an idiot and leaves. I can’t help but wonder why all of a sudden do women feel the need to dress up this way for Halloween? Some of the costumes that I’ve sported over the past 10 years have included a catholic school girl, Marilyn Monroe, a cowgirl, Cher, Rainbow Brite; all of which have either consisted of super short skirts, lots of cleavage or in some cases both. So as you get older is Halloween no longer just an excuse to dress up and pretend to be someone else? Or does it just become a reason to dress like a slut? I have a feeling that it’s a little bit of both.
I spent a good two hours the other night looking for my this year costume on-line. If you take a look at costume sites, you will notice that many women’s costumes are called something like “Sassy Nurse”, “Seductive French Maid”, “Cute Sprite”, etc. I’m just as guilty as anyone else for skimming over the one’s that don’t start with something like that, because no matter how I feel underneath it all, I’m still going to choose to be a Sexy Ghostbuster over Gumby, that’s just how it is!
Please don’t be offended by what I say here, I’m speaking from my own personal experiences and I’m in no way saying that these are the feelings of all women. Halloween is about having fun and dressing up as whatever you want.