Sexy Halloween costumes in college leave nothing to imaginationBy Colleen McSweeney
from the Rocky Mountain Collegian
As a college woman, I, along with my female peers, have an unspoken expectation placed upon us on Halloween: look like a “ho fo sho.”
One friend from class who was planning on dressing as the Black Swan –– which she said consisted of a black tutu and bra –– likes the sense of lost inhibition that comes with a college Halloween.
“It’s the one weekend we can dress like hoes and get away with it,” she said. “No one judges you, so you can really do whatever you want. It’s just reckless fun. And everyone wants to look hot sometimes, you know?”
I talked to other girls who said things along the same line –– it seems some college women don’t dress provocatively on Halloween with male interest in mind, but rather for the fun of “letting go” without the usual judgment and stigma.
I use the 'ho fo sho' phenomenon every year to talk about how much Americans freak out about women's sexuality. We can't dress like this normally because...well...that's not what nice girls do. The students are horrified.
ReplyDeleteYou might enjoy this webcomic: Have a sexy little Halloween
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about how hilarious it is that every conceivable constume is "sexy." Sexy bee, sexy Raggedy Ann, sexy mail carrier. It's absurd. And for little girls, it's "pretty princess." Pretty princess vampire, pretty princess witch, pretty princess ladybug. I was proud of my kid for donning an androgynous anime-character costume and trooping off looking neither sexy nor pretty but just kind of dorky and goofy.
ReplyDeleteThey're kidding themselves if they think that people aren't going to be judging them.
ReplyDeleteThey are.
The saddest part is that, on Hallowe'en, the one day a year in which a person can pretend to be *anything* he or she wants, so many young women are choosing these things. Girls are growing up so thoroughly socialized into the notion that their value comes from others' enjoyment of their physical appearance, whether as "pretty princesses" when younger, or "sexy [whatever]" when older. How is it a "loss of inhibition" when it's exactly what society demands of conventionally attractive young women -- lots of visible flesh and unimpeded sexual availability. I find it very sad that so many women who are ostensibly learning to think critically in college are still willingly performing the role of the object of others' desires.
ReplyDeleteTonight, I'm going to be riding my horse, fo sho.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there's a link between the first generation of girls to grow up with Bratz dolls also being the first generation to wind up on a show called 16 & Pregnant.
ReplyDeleteI saw the "Monster High" costume commercial for Party City and I'm fairly certain the first generation to grow up on "Monster High" will grow up to be the cast of 16 & A Professional Dominatrix.
The dorky/goofy costumes definitely outnumbered the sexy ones on my campus today (and both were way outnumbered by everyday clothes). The trend seemed to be toward some combination of sci fi and medieval/renaissance, with a bit of superhero mixed in: various mixes of swords, capes, robes, epauleted jackets, and the like. The sexiest costumes I saw were a couple of skintight superhero-type outfits on males. But I left campus before dark, and don't know what they wore this weekend, or tonight.
ReplyDeleteMy Halloween costume, put on in preparation for a friend's party:
ReplyDeleteA good suit (pinstripes, close-cut, pencil skirt just above the knee, a pair of black stiletto heels, several fake $50s shoved into the breast pocket of my suit jacket, a blindingly white shirt with a few drops of blood on the collar, and some wax teeth.
Karl Marx says that capitalists are "vampires sucking the labor of the living." That's me, baby, at least at Halloween, when I can be anything I want (and the thing I most fear.)
How to drain the sexy out: Dress as an SS-Hilferin, a female auxiliary to the German SS. The uniform is a green-gray jacket, a green-gray skirt, round double-lightning rune patch on the left breast, Waffen-SS eagle on the left sleve. Top it off with a taller variant of the standard Werhmacht/Waffen-SS sidecap and you are ready to destroy the "dress sexy" thing through total political ugliness.
ReplyDelete(Or you could go as a female Red Army soldier: all you need is a gymnastorka, a black beret with a red star pin, black or brown skirt, short ugly boots. The simplest of WWII uniforms.)
You've seen the "Ann Frank" costume? "Ann Skank"? I am not lying, this is out there.
ReplyDeleteI believe you, HoundOfTheBasketballs..... It seems that everything has to have a sleazy side in this society, and the scuzziness is usually cranked to 11.
ReplyDeletehttp://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/funny-pictures-meowloween-memecats-ai-lewkz-nuffin-liek-dat.jpg
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