By Rachel Sandler, NOW/PAC Intern
As an Australian, I am mostly unfamiliar with the celebration of Halloween. I had imagined a day full of children, pumpkins, the color orange and candy. However after going out this weekend searching for a costume of my own, I discovered I was wrong. Apparently Halloween is a holiday solely celebrated by 90 pound women dressed for sex.
Sexy nurse, sexy maid, sexy devil, sexy fairy, sexy kitten. The list gets sicker. Sexy Snow White, sexy Alice in Wonderland and sexy Beauty and the Beast. Then just in case you thought there were still sacred elements of childhood remaining; sexy bumble bee, sexy ladybird and sexy bunny rabbit. When did it become ok to lace childhood in lingerie? I am also forced to ask — when did this day that was meant to be dedicated to vampires, ghouls and various other undead creatures — become dedicated to the objectification women?
While I am appalled by the oversexed nature of this disturbing holiday, on Love Your Body Day, what I am most outraged by is the fact that there was not one costume hanging on the wall that would fit a girl bigger than a size 4. Why should any young woman wanting to go out and celebrate Halloween have to sew herself into a skimpy pleather outfit that will most likely stop her from breathing, just to participate?
This way of celebrating Halloween is promoting an unhealthy body image. The limited costumes available are only furthering the notion that only skinny girls are sexy. This idea has plagued women for way too long. If those who made this holiday the sex fest it is want to see something truly scary this Halloween, they can have a look at one of the many young women suffering from an eating disorder caused by peer and societal pressure. Maybe when they look into her sunken eyes, they will understand that this message is nothing but cruel.
This Halloween we need to fight back against the idea that only skinny girls can dress up. So if you already have your skin tight sexy cop outfit (that comes with thigh high boots of course), I urge you to trade it in. Trade it in for something scary, or something funny. Trade it in for something ‘one size fits all.’ Trade it in for something that says girls are sexy at any size, without having to dress like a stripper.
This post is part of the 2011 Love Your Body Day Blog Carnival