ExposedNYC

All I’ve heard about the past few years is how Halloween has turned into an excuse for women to put on slutty costumes. My biggest problem is that it’s always done in a mocking tone, and never with any constructive criticism. There is a part of me that actually agrees with many of the critics, but I just can’t endorse name calling, even if I understand the sentiment behind it.

I’ll ask the same question that came to mind at this time last year- why are women embracing a trend requiring every costume to be sexy?

Maybe it has something to do with our digital age, where we insist on clever graphics and sound to accompany everything from our phone calls to our individual social networking pages. We really are trying to turn our lives into animated movies, and we’re no longer satisfied with just a great voice on the radio.

Let’s take, for example, a popular costume this year- Amy Winehouse. Now, try to remember a time before you had heard “Rehab” more often than the Happy Birthday song and recognized that there was a solid talent behind it. I’m guessing that this was also before you had ever seen a picture of the ingénue behind the voice because from that moment on all one can think about is the beehive, personal life, and face that has been ripped apart by Perez and the paparazzi combined. It wasn’t enough for this girl to put out one of the most popular albums of the year- she was supposed to be hot, too.

It seems like women are always going to be vying for male attention, and we’ve accepted that we are most likely to achieve this on the lowest common denominator. Will some guys appreciate the intellect or sense of humor of a girl who comes dressed as something topical or unique? Sure. Would every man in the room drop that conversation if Giselle walked in dressed as a Victoria Secret angel? Probably.

I’m most bothered when this trend crosses into genres that it doesn’t need to go. Sure, nurses have been fantasy objects for ages, and catholic schoolgirls are a standard, but I find the trend of naughty fairy book princesses and seductive Strawberry Shortcakes disturbing. Talk about sending mixed messages.

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