Friday, October 27, 2006
The Sluts of Halloween
filed under: Sexerati Hearts by Melissa Gira
The inimitable Rachel Kramer Bussel points to this ABC news piece on what seems to be the perils of Halloween sluttiness (short version: the one day a year any woman can be a slut and get away with it… or not?) but is really one of the better critiques of Ariel Levy’s backlash-tastic blockbuster, Female Chauvinist Pigs.
Snip:
…in its October issue, Jane magazine addressed the trend toward skimpy, scanty Halloween costumes. In “Enough With the Slutty Costumes,” Stephanie Trong writes, “Girls love to dress like sluts on Halloween. Whatever their costume, they always find a way to stipperfy it, no matter how ludicrous the concept. Like ’sexy cop,’ ’sexy zombie,’ ’sexy Army cadet,’ or … ’sexy shoe saleswoman.’ It’s always one big pleather, vinyl and fishnet stockings fest everywhere you turn.”
(N.B.: none of those sound particularly ludicrous to me, but then again, I used to be a dominatrix.)
Somehow, the whole thing comes together with this, as close a rallying cry towards sex-positivity as ever found in the mainstream. Clip this one for the fridge next to the Dear Abby’s warning of razor blade apples and other forbidden fruits:
A culture of sex doesn’t have to be accepted in its entirety or not at all. Women can partake in what they like and ignore what they don’t. They can wear a French maid outfit one Halloween and a rabbit suit the next. They can get comfortable in a culture of sex because they can handle it.
I’ll let RKB have the last word, and not just because I’m hot for her brains for this one. (No, that doesn’t mean I’m going as a Theory Zombie for Halloween. But you never know… a Susan Sontag costume would be slutty, right?)
“Sex equals power” does not a feminist manifesto make. There are so many ways our sexuality is powerful, and that goes for men as well as women. Power is not inherently bad, and it’s not necessarily “power over.” We don’t need to fall into the “empowerment” vs. “objectification” debate for the umpteenth time either. It’s about choice.
(Image: powkang, via Flickr)
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I think alot of it comes down to the fact that our costumes get alot of eyeballs looking at them, be it for gender identity or just exhibitionism, we girls have always liked to play “dressup” and since we have all grown older, we have budded with boobs, and on Halloween we either play them down or pump them up for the show! I see each year getting more and more floozy but like hitchcock gave us just a little peek and left the rest for our imagination, we also can create costumes that tease the eyes. We get to be costume designer, director and actor all in one take!