From righteous to risque: The evolution of Halloween costumes

Marissa Villarreal

The question that is always stirring around this time of the year, is ‘what should I be for Halloween?’ The decision is essentially endless. 

As the popular movie Mean Girls put it, “In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” 

Over time, Halloween has allowed us to become anything we want for a night of fun but for many the essence of Halloween has lost its value. 

It is easy to see that Halloween has gone from this regular-world idea of scary costumes to the theory of inappropriate girl-world costumes. At one point in history, on this night, a typical guy would be found in a vampire costume or a  women’s costume would entail a cat-like jumpsuit. 

Halloween night now consist of a lot more skin and a lot less clothing. 

As generations have become more exposed to sensual humor and racy images among  television screens and movie theaters, in  books or magazines and especially across the Internet, it has given generations the idea that sexy or vulgar like costumes are more acceptable upon Halloween night. 

While shopping for a Halloween costume, it is hard not to notice the typical hot nurse costumes but what some do not realize is that it is not just female costumes that have grown more inappropriate with time, but even costumes for guys have gotten more and more outrageous as well. Mesa Community College student, Jay Marshall admitted, “I was a pimp once for Halloween, with an entourage of girls all around me.” 

It is not uncommon to come across the pimp costume or more often then not, one can find the breathalyzer costume that reads “blow here” across the crotch area. Marshall is not the only MCC student to give in to this new Halloween spirit. Sophomore Scott Groce stated, “For Halloween this year, I tried to think of the most classy type of person I know so I’m probably going to be an alcoholic.”  

These types of costumes once again relay the message that Halloween has become more about sexy and crude costumes rather then the original meaning of the holiday. It appears generations will continue to soak in the girl-world mentality of inappropriate costumes. 

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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