Day of the (Please Let It Be) Dead

I’m calling for an end to it. My first Halloween weekend in Oakland and I see the downfall of our generation walking the streets. Scores of sexy nurses, sexy super heroes, sexy pirates, and sexed up little red riding hoods on every corner. I want to call an end to this trend. Can we please kill the sexy store bought costumes?

I remember every halloween costume I’ve ever had. My very first one was a store-bought plastic clown suit and mask and my second one was a generic super hero girl in the same plastic mask vein. Every one after that, my mom made. I remember going to Jo-Ann Fabrics and looking through the pattern books to find something I wanted to be. I got to be She-Ra, Daisy Duck, a dancing bear in a tutu, Cleopatra, and a cowgirl. I feel incredibly fortunate to have grown up in a house where that was part of my experience. But as adults, we need to take a stand against store bought slutty costumes.

It’s not so much the objectification aspect or the downgrading of women in the workforce by turning every occupation into “Sexy _____.” It’s just a shameful lack of creativity. Store bought costumes don’t take any effort. This year I was a piece of tuna sashimi. It wasn’t a terribly recognizable costume, but while standing in line to get my roller disco skates I would hear a whisper of “Oh! She’s sushi!” and smile. But I was proud that I made it and that it didn’t have “Sexy” in the title (granted, I could have been sexy sashimi).

I worry that we’ve become lazy. As a kid, I got to be things I really wanted to be. The competitive nature of halloween, to have the best costume, drove me to find something awesome that I could be. Slutty consumer is not an aspiration. But it could be a really creative homemade costume with the right fishnet stockings.