I love the candy, the games, the overall sense of community it seems to create, and especially, I love the costumes.
It seems, however, that there are two types of costume-ers. There is the first type, that I identify with, is the type that appreciates a good, well done costume, especially if it's original or homemade. In recent years I have demonstrated my membership to this group by constructing fun and original costumes,
like last year's Rubik's Cube:
Or the year before, a box of Crayons:
Or the years before that, a Hi-C Juice box, a bag of Jelly Bellies, and a tube of Crest Whitening toothpaste (photos unavailable).
This sort of creative spirit is the heart of Halloween to me.
Unfortunately, there is that other type of costume-er:
the Halloween-is-an-excuse-to-dress-like-a-HO (or man-Ho) type.
I'm willing to give this type of person the benefit of the doubt; maybe they think they have to wear something suggestive to fit in with their social sphere, maybe they can't afford to buy enough fabric to cover most of their body, or maybe they only had enough money to buy a child's costume or recycle theirs from ten years past.
Most of the time, though, none of these excuses are actual or valid. Most of the time, these costumes are meant to draw (the wrong kind of) attention and ruin the true spirit of Halloween.
I have been able to live with this disparity in opinion until recently, when I came to find out that it is creeping into the world of childhood innocence. Read this article published in the Washington Post to see what I mean. Or this post from a blog I came across yesterday.
Or, how about when I googled "Teen costumes," this was the first image that came up:
(By the way, if you're having trouble distinguishing Types 1 and 2, a good give-away is to look at the shoes. A Type 2-er will usually be wearing platforms or exaggerated heels of some sort. A Type 1-er would rarely wear such impractical footwear on a holiday that requires so much time on your feet)
I like to think that maybe, possibly, this is just an Orange County trend; this is, after all, an area of "blessed" youth. Bored, upper-middle class children and teenagers finding increasingly debaucherous methods of rebellion and/or entertainment. But this theme seems to be a national topic, judging from articles like the one linked to above in the Washington Post, and even its appearance in movies like Mean Girls, where the main character, played by Lindsay Lohan (a fine role model for young girls everywhere...), is initially shocked by yet soon assimilates into [what I call] slutty Halloween complacency.
As I wrap up this blog, I feel I'm supposed to offer a solution- some sort of advice to Haloweeners and mothers to type 2 costume-ers....but it seems I am left without anything new to suggest.
I can, however, leave you all with the idea that maybe this problem didn't begin recently, but has actually been around and growing for years...
...and if this was the sort of material that permeated MY tween existence, and if I was myself a more tasteful version of "Posh Spice" in my 5th grade talent show and still managed to become a Type 1 Haloweener, then maybe there is more hope than we may have thought.
Before I sign off, I'd like to leave you with this hilarious costume I found in my search:
