By Josephine Bowman
How old were you the first time you felt sexy?
Young girls all over the world are stuck with no choice, but to wear sultry Halloween costumes
due to the lack of coverage in average costumes. It’s hard to even find a nurse costume that
isn’t wearing a thong with a red cross across it. This is a heavy problem because it is putting the
image in girls’ heads that this is how we are supposed to look and dress.
“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can
say anything about it”. A quote from my favorite movie growing up that is imprinted on many
young, teenage girls’ minds when October strikes.
Walking around a Halloween store in 2016, trying to pick out an outfit to go trick or treating in
and being bombarded with fishnets and mini skirts.
As a young girl my mom would catch me looking through the magazines to find a halloween
costume for the upcoming holiday.
I would immediately go to the women’s tab. “Sexy halloween costumes”
I wanted to be lusted after from a young age and halloween was the perfect time to experience
feeling feminine.
Because that’s what being feminine is right? Being sexy?
In the article The Oversexualization of Young Adolecsent Girls, written by Jennifer R. Curry and
Laura H. Choate, they go into detail about the impact of the situation. They go over how even
just an innocent trip to the mall for two middle school girls can slowly chip away at their
innocence when the only clothing options for their age group are crop tops and g-strings. It is
clear that middle school students and other young girls are tuned into these ideas that you need
to show off your body in order to fit in.
In a report made by the APA (American Psychological Association) they found that sexualization
in halloween costumes has negative effects on cognitive functioning, physical and mental
health, sexuality and attitude. This has led to female doctors or police/firefighters not being
taken seriously as society is largely subjected to depictions of them being objectified throughout
media
These halloween costumes are only adding to the ongoing problem that kids are losing time to
be kids. Halloween has traditionally been a time for children to indulge in their imaginations.
They should be having fun and enjoying the innocence of their childhood. When these young
girls are being encouraged by stores and media to wear sexualized costumes, it steals this
precious time from them. It can push them into an adult world they just aren’t ready to
understand yet.
Many of these costumes are made to fit into gender stereotypes. It limits a young girls’ variety to
dress up as whomever she wasnt to, because of the peak in predefined sets of roles and
appearances on women.
We can easily fix these problems by encouraging girls and teens to be creative and expressive
with their costumes. It’s so important to be mindful about what influence these provocative
Halloween costumes are having on girls. With promoting healthy self-image and creative self-
expression, we can help girls enjoy Halloween, while preserving their innocence and the joys of
their childhood. One way that we can push to decrease this problem of oversexualization is to
make a stand like the women of the “My Costume is not Consent” movement did. Rather than
supporting the sexualization of girls by purchasing sexy maid, teacher and nurse costumes, fight