Offensive Halloween Costumes Perpetuate Harmful Stereotypes for Minority Groups
Cady Heron, protagonist of the iconic 2004 movie 鈥淢ean Girls,鈥 is wrong about this one: 鈥淚n girl world, Halloween is the one time of year a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girl can say anything about it.鈥
Dressing up as a 鈥渟exy Native American,鈥 for example, is the intersection of fetishization and cultural appropriation. With Halloween just around the corner, teens are starting to pick costumes to go to parties or events. It鈥檚 important to draw the line between role-playing and being disrespectful. The internet further exacerbates this issue, using media to encourage young students to wear costumes that range from being questionable to blatantly racist. The first step to prevention is consciousness, so those who understand the boundaries should spread awareness.
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
In order to avoid cultural appropriation or insensitivity, people need to be cautious when dressing like a celebrity or character of color鈥攖his means those who aren’t black should steer clear of protective hairstyles (cornrows, dreads and bantu knots), and making sure foundation matches skin tone. For a black rapper like ZillaKami, the bright hair color and trademark tattoos are on point, but reconsider the dreads if they are not already a part of your culture.
Inappropriate costumes stem beyond a feature 鈥渂elonging鈥 to another culture鈥攖hose features have historical importance and societal connotations that should be respected. Keisha Brown, an associate professor of history at Tennessee State University, wrote a Huffington Post article about cultural appropriation. 鈥淸The] issue at hand is the separation of Black culture from the peoples and history that created it,鈥 Brown wrote. 鈥淧eople embrace the hip or popular elements of Black culture, but not Black Americans.鈥
At the intersection between cultural appropriation and misogyny, people must also be aware of the historical stereo-
types attached to certain cultures. A 鈥渟exy geisha鈥 outfit or anything involving a sexualized take on culturally traditional clothing can be insensitive to the group that is referenced. Halloween costumes worn out of ignorance lead to the perpetuation of pervasive stereotypes.
East Asian women in particular have been hypersexualized throughout western history, and it鈥檚 important to keep this in mind before buying a sexy ninja costume on Amazon. Movies such as 鈥淎ustin Powers鈥 and 鈥淭he World of Suzie Wong鈥 normalize what is popularly called 鈥測ellow fever.鈥 鈥淎ustin Powers鈥 includes a threesome with Japanese twins in a to-do list, and 鈥淭he World of Suzie Wong鈥 depicts the title character as sexual and not much else. Not only do these movies perpetuate problematic ideals, but they are also incredibly dehumanizing to Asians, categorizing them solely as sexual objects. Once a minority group has been deemed less than human, violence against them seems acceptable. The hypersexualization of Asian women has also led to extremist violence. Twenty-one-year-old Robert Aaron Long shot and killed eight Asian women at three different spas in and around Atlanta, Georgia last spring because 鈥渢hey were too muh of a temptation to him and he couldn鈥檛 resist.鈥 Asian women are viewed as tempting, which is probably why the sexy 鈥淥riental dress鈥 is a popular costume and dress for casual wear, as perpetuated by fast-fashion sites such as Shein and Fashion Nova. However, the back-handedness lies in how the temptation leads to mockery and, in this case, violence.
East Asian women are not the only fetishized minority group. For years, indigenous women have faced a similar issue. M. Elise Marrubio, a professor of American Indian Studies at Augsburg College, coined the terms 鈥淐elluloid Princess鈥 and 鈥淪exualized Maiden鈥 in her 2006 book 鈥淜illing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film.鈥 She examines the two main archetypes of indigenous women in media: the Celluloid Princess, who falls in love with the hero, usually white and male, and has to sacrifice as a result. The second archetype is the femme fatale Sexualized Maiden whose mere existence caters to serve western exotic fantasies. Considering the sheer number of indigenous women who are missing or murdered鈥攚hich NBC News describes as 鈥渁n epidemic of violence鈥濃攊ndigenous women face the same ultimatum as East Asian women: Be sexualized or be killed. Sometimes, it鈥檚 both.
MOCKING DISORDERS
Another offensive genre of costumes is disorder-related costumes. The ones worn most frequently are skin-tight skeleton dresses with a measuring tape around the waist, dubbed 鈥淎nna Rexia.鈥 These costumes mock people with eating and mental disorders, at times sexualizing their struggles.
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) provides troubling statistics on just how many people suffer from eating disorders. In adolescent girls, 35% to 57% engage in crash dieting (tremendously cutting down calorie intake), fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills or laxatives. In other words: up to half of the population of adolescent girls struggle with body image and diet issues. Thus, it is extremely insensitive to turn their struggle into an 鈥淎nna Rexia鈥 costume.
When this costume surfaced in 2011, 32-year-old Jessi Davin was immediately upset, taking to Tumblr to voice her displeasement. 鈥淎norexia is nothing to party about or laugh at,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 real, it鈥檚 deadly and should not be marketed as a slutty outfit.鈥 She鈥檚 right鈥攁ccording to ANAD, eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdose. Students should consider this before tying a measuring tape around their waist this Halloween.
Another insensitive costume that society has come to accept is the mental disorder patient costume, which features a straitjacket and exaggerated makeup. These costumes are an insulting portrayal of an already under-represented and mocked group of people, and these hurtful mockeries lead to high suicide rates of people with mental disorders. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), psychological autopsies from the middle of the previous century and onwards have revealed that most people who have died by suicide have suffered from mental disorders, and a recent figure suggests this number could be at least 90%.
The truth is that these examples are not good costumes. They鈥檙e not funny. They鈥檙e not attractive. They鈥檙e not creative. Halloween is supposed to be fun and thrilling, and wearing a costume that depicts a real struggle in an insensitive way is a surefire way to make it less fun for the people it mocks. This Halloween, think twice about your
costume.