Halloween a Whoring?

PB and I had a conversation last year? Or maybe two years ago now after I showed him some photos that a contemporary put on Facebook from Halloween. Female, attractive and single and with what I'm assuming is her group of single friends. All of them were wearing tarty outfits - sexy maid, sexy kitten, sexy mouse, sexy devil... you get the picture. In Poland, Halloween is the day of the dead. It's the day that families goes to the cemeteries, cleans up the graves of their deceased loved ones, and leave candles and some flowers. It's not about dressing up in costumes and trick or treating. So we started talking about Halloween and in particular the costumes that women choose to wear.

Now, in my trampier days, I also gravitated towards the "sexier" costumes. In fact, my last year in high school, I wore a scandalous black cat costume - skin tight black velvet body suit with long tail attached, cut high in the thighs, black pantyhose, black high heels and a head band with cat ears. I was the talk of many people as I paraded through the halls of my school. I knew they were talking about me, but having grown up as one of the geekiest kids in school and then becoming relatively attractive, I knew it would garner attention and I liked it. Total tart.

Halloween has become a day where young women can wear a totally trashy outfit, look completely sleazy and it's considered normal. Wear it on a different day, and she's just asking for labels and trouble. Are women in such desperate need of attention from the opposite sex that we feel the need to portray ourselves as sex objects one day out of the year?

This phenomenon was even found in the movie Mean Girls. The main character, in voice over, as the movie pans over a high school Halloween party says, "In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." The main character dresses as a zombie bride and one of the "slut girls" asks her why she's wearing something so scary. Simple, because it's Halloween.

So, when did this change happen? Was it just part of evolution? When I was going to high school, midway through, they changed my school to an Academy which meant uniforms. There were expectations as to how short the skirts could be - mine was far above what was considered acceptable, but because teachers adored me, I got away with it. Short skirt? Check. High heels? Check. Double standards from the teachers? Check. Bad reputation (undeservedly I might add)? Check. My "skirt" was even graffitied about in the girls' washroom - labeled as a belt. Very nice. Then after I left, every time I'd drive by the school, I'd notice the skirts were getting shorter and shorter and even I was aghast! In retrospect, I know why I had such a short skirt. I got attention and I liked it. Good or bad, it was better than not being noticed as I had been for so long before. So, is it poor self esteem that drives girls to wear slutty outfits for Halloween?

So, our hypothesis is: women who are dressed in non slutty costumes are much more confident and have higher self esteem than those who are wearing slutty outfits. Hrm.... makes you wonder doesn't it? Over compensation at it's very best.