October 2013

     With Halloween around the corner, I stumbled upon this awesome video of a Poetry Slam done by female youths in Washington DC. This video highlights exactly the problems in society when women are faced with purchasing costumes when one wants to participate in Halloween festivities. This year I made my own costume, and I have in the past few years because the costumes targeted at my general age group are skimpy and that's basically ALL you can ever find. Not to mention that those cheaply made, small garments of polyester satin and whatever else, are ridiculously over-priced and it's kind of really an injustice.
       The point is not to shame girls who are comfortable enough to dress in "slutty" Halloween costumes because it's counter-productive and harmful and slut shaming is stupid. It is, however, that women shouldn't only have overly sexualized costumes available to them if they aren't creative or willing enough to make something of their own that isn't so... HEY LOOK AT MY TITTIES, to put it bluntly. If you want to dress up as Hermione Granger with a shirt unbuttoned to your bra and a skirt that just covers your butt cheeks because it makes you feel confident and it's your Halloween costume, GREAT. It's your choice! But it shouldn't be the only choice for every other girl who wanted to dress up as Hermione Granger.