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Tuesday, 24 October 2006 16:47 |
| John North
Editor & Publisher |
"In her thigh-highs and ruby miniskirt, Little Red Riding Hood does not appear to be en route to her grandmotherës house."
ÇƒÓ Stephanie Rosenbloom in The New York Times
ï
While not normally an avid follower of fashion, I read a story from that genre last week that I found rather intriguing ÇƒÓ about the trend in womenës Halloween costumes over the last few years.
The article, appearing in last Thursdayës edition of The New York Times, headlined, "Good girls go bad, for a day," detailed the trend among American women to wear ever-more-risque costumes on the spookiest of holidays.
In
contrast, observers noted rather pointedly that menës Halloween
costumes have not evolved in the same way, continuing to be more
traditional.
Stephanie
Rosenbloom of the Times interviewed a number of people, most notably
social scientists and advocates of the womenës rights movement, who
addressed the evolution of womenës Halloween costumes in the last
several years ÇƒÓ which Rosenbloom terms "more strip club than storybook."
In the
interviews, the women wearing sexy costumes said they consider their
choices to be merely escapist, harmless fun. From a male perspective,
it would be my guess that these scantily clad women in no way intend a
slap at the womenës rights movement. Besides, nobody I know has ever
said feminists cannot be sexy, too.
"Decades after
the second wave of the womenës movement, you would expect more of a
gender-neutral range of costumes," Aide Nelson, author of "The Pink
Dragon Is Female: Halloween Costumes and Gender Markers," told the
Times. She had analyzed 469 childrenës costumes and how they reinforce
traditional gender messages.
The trend toward
sexualized costumes is rooted in the propensity to dress little girls
in "gendered" costumes, according to Dr. Nelson, who is a professor of
sociology at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. When the girls get
older, the same "gendered" trend continues in increasingly revealing
costumes, she said.
While discussing
this column, a young female colleague asked wistfully: "Why arenët men
dressing more sexily, like Calvin Klein models, for Halloween?"
Amongst my thoughts on why men are not participating in the sexualized costume trend:
ï Little or no explicit demand from women.
ï Men are less
willing to flaunt their bodies, perhaps because of more rigid male
gender roles in the United States. Taught from a young age not to wear
revealing outfits, men learn not to scare women with their sexuality.
ï Men tend to be
less concerned about their physical appearance and what they might wear
any time of the year, including Halloween.
Still, I wonder
if todayës women, many of whom ask not be treated as sex objects, feel
any qualms about dressing for Halloween as if going to work at a
bordello.
So why do women dress ever more sexily for Halloween?
It could be that
truism that women dress more to impress other women than men because
they desire to outdo each other in the yearës ultimate costume
competition.
Or, it could be that our consumer marketing culture puts way too much emphasis on sex-appeal for women.
Without a doubt,
todayës women must feel pressured to measure up to this nearly
impossible standard of hyper-sexualized beauty. As a result, they use
this one night a year ÇƒÓ Halloween ÇƒÓ to playfully push the limits.
And I have yet to hear any complaints from my fellow men about sexy Halloween costumes for women. |
