10.31.2009

Once a Year, The Feminist Movement Goes Down the Crapper

I'm going to talk about something that is entirely not okay with me: Girls' Halloween Costumes. I know, I know, it's something we expect to see every year, but just because we anticipate that tiny little skirt, those fishnet thigh-highs, that skin-tight navy lycra minidress with the 'sexy' aviator cap and nametag reading "Mile-High Pilot" (what!?), it does NOT MAKE IT OKAY.

Why!? WHY WHY WHYYYYY??? Why do we allow ourselves as women to be portrayed this way? Why do the men in our society encourage it? WHAT THE F!?

I find the trend towards skanky women's Halloween costumes to be insulting, depressing, unfair and entirely uncreative. Whatever happened to truly scary? Or funny? Or clever? How easy (and cheap looking) it is to slither into a tight little number, throw on some high heels and call yourself... I don't know... "a sexy pirate," "a slutty nurse," "a-who-gives-a-shit-what-I-am-as-long-as-I-look-hot!!"

This really got to me while I was riding the train home from a party on October 30th. All the girls in costume were wearing stilettos, ill-fitting dresses that hit mid-thigh (and seemed incapable of concealing a well-balanced dinner), and sheer stockings of one sort or another. The men? Track suits. Flight suits. Sweat pants. Trench coats... And me, in my (very un-sexy) pirate costume which utilized my boyfriend's oversized dress shirt, a red bandanna, a pair of khaki's rolled up, a hand-sewn felt eye-patch, and a pair of black winter boots. And damn, was that outfit comfy. Which is more than I can say for an outfit that forces my posture off-balance, inhibits my food-intake for the night, and requires constant re-application of various goopy face-products that may or may not make my eyelids look infested by centipedes.

I, for one, am boycotting this sexist BS. I refuse to allow myself to feel less feminine or attractive. I refuse to give in to "easy," "sexy," or "hot" (unless I mean "hot" in the fleece onesy-pajama type way). I will be creative. I will be funny. And damn, will I be comfortable.