After reading last week's article "The dark side of Halloween," I felt obligated to respond.
For many students around college campuses, Halloween is one of the most anticipated holidays of the year. But in Ayaka Dohi's article, she argues that many students' costumes are "stereotypical … offensive and perpetuate inaccurate messages." But isn't that the point? Does anyone wear a costume with the purpose of making a respectful and accurate imitation of a society or culture?
Costumes are typically made with the purpose of highlighting an extreme stereotypical representation simply because it is funny. Halloween is a night where we can cross lines and not have to worry about anyone getting upset.
And it needs to stay that way. Thinking that these stereotypical costumes are in any way supposed to be entirely accurate would be like judging "The Colbert Report" as a serious news show. Yeah, there is some truth behind it, but overall it's meant to be funny.
The article also claims that "we expect women to hyper-sexualize their bodies" and that "men are not expected to be hot and sexy on Halloween."
False. First off, there is no more pressure for a girl to dress skimpy on Halloween than there is on any other typical weekend. There are plenty of costumes that don't force girls to show off more skin than they normally would.
As for the guys, we want to impress girls just as badly as they want to impress us. On previous Halloween nights, I have seen plenty of shirtless dudes dressed up as a gladiator, a Trojan, Michael Phelps, etc. Let's face it: If we all had abs like Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino on "The Jersey Shore", I'm sure we'd all be shirtless. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that.
Obviously, going to an office party when you're 40 wearing only a speedo would be inappropriate, but we're in college! If we can't wear skimpy, stereotypical and offensive costumes now, then I'm afraid we will never be able to. And that is something I just cannot accept.
Basically, college kids love Halloween the same way they love South Park: It's creative, it's funny, it's offensive and anyone who takes it seriously just doesn't get it. The article makes the claim that "the humorous intents of Halloween costumes are beginning to cross lines," but I disagree. They have been crossing lines for years and will continue to in the future. And I hope most of you agree with me when I say: That's the point!
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4 comments
So I don't know about any of you guys but I didn't see or hear one person get offended this halloween over all the "oppressed identities" being wrongfully represented by us ignorant college kids. For the most part it was a pretty awesome time to bond with friends, like it is every year. I keep seeing words like "alienate, belittle, offend" but are people really as touchy and sensitive as you? I would say no. Personally I don't know of one person who was offended this year, and not all my friends are "white, presumable straight" people. What I did see was people laughing at others and themselves. So by definition I would have to argue that "those representations" ARE funny. "You insult women when you deliberately choose to ignore such issues." Really? I said that there is no more pressure on women than there is other weekends to dress skimpy. So by me saying that women have a choice to choose not to be skimpy I am somehow offending them?? I would say it is offensive to define women as incapable to choose for themselves and are just slaves to "societal pressures."So again I think you really missed the point when you asked "are college kids so entitled to ignorance, that they are willing to offend their peers and alienate friends?" And no we aren't. Who do you think we are partying with on halloween? Strangers? No we are with our friends having a good time and like I said before, I have no friends who were offended. And finally, I believe the main problem here is that there are groups of people who can laugh at themselves and others, not at them but with them, and there are people who post anonymous comments about how offended they and other people are (I've never in my life seen these other people but I'll take your word for it). College kids don't feel "entitled to ignorance." Instead we choose not to take ourselves so seriously. It's really fun you should try it sometime. And from everything I have seen (like in real life) this is not doing nearly as much damage to as you would like to insist. In fact, for me and many others, it has done the exact opposite. Let's embrace the fact that we can laugh at ourselves and laugh at others and know that it is all in good fun. And if you can't, then I'm sorry. Life must be pretty stressful. Cheers.