Halloween Costumes: Traditional v. Sexy

By Annalise Knudson | Posted October 22, 2015

Halloween is just around the corner, and with Halloween comes the costumes, parties, trick-or-treaters and bundles of candy that go along with it.

For the people that prefer to buy a costume, they would be willing to spend large sums of money ranging from $19.99 up to $79.99 or higher.  Every party store that sells costumes becomes too crowded and waiting on lines to buy anything becomes an hour long process.

With every year that passes and I search party stores for a costume, I see one word that triumphs over the others. The word “sexy” or a word that is similar, has been placed in front of almost every costume for women that it has become difficult to find a traditional costume to compare it with.

Women’s costumes tend to have very little fabric covering the woman’s body, skirts that are extremely short, and are usually pictured with stockings to complete the outfit.

There is even an option to choose and search through only sexy costumes for women under the category “Specialty” on Party City’s website. But on the list for men’s “Specialty” costumes, the option for sexy costumes does not exist.

This is not meant to pick on the girls that choose to wear these costumes, because most girls tend to buy those costumes because they are cute to wear and it’s only for one night. But the problem is for the girls who don’t want to wear that type of costume.

More than half the costumes are considered “sexy” costumes, and the traditional costumes are either too modest or too expensive. Why not make an “in-between” costume for women who want something seductive enough, but modest enough to not be considered a “sexy” costume?

Why are women still depicted as having to be sexy or seductive, even in the case of Halloween costumes?

If a girl on Halloween chooses to wear a seductive or sexy costume, vulgar words would be used against her on how she dresses too provocatively in public. But if a girl wore a more modest, traditional costume, she doesn’t dress provocatively enough and should show more skin.

I’ve come to the conclusion that women can’t win any argument, even in the case of Halloween costumes, an article of clothing that is worn for less than 24 hours.

Halloween costumes are supposed to symbolize what you want to be and what you can’t be any other day of the year. It’s hard enough to find a costume I like, but harder to find a costume that fits me the right way.

Looking through Party City’s women’s costumes, I scrolled through thin women wearing revealing costumes and wondered what it would look like on me.

To wear most of those sexy costumes requires women to be thin enough to feel comfortable in the costume. Again, costumes require either thin or plus size women to wear the costume, but completely leaves out all the women in between.

I don’t feel like that is the case with the traditional costumes because the amount of fabric differs from the sexy costumes. Whether girls want to wear sexy costumes or traditional costumes shouldn’t matter at all because it is their choice if they want to wear it.

One thing that I think everyone can agree with is that costumes are too expensive, traditional, sexy, or unique.

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