I wish I had the um, balloons, to wear this costume

Dressing like a tiger does not turn you into one. Even if you have a really good growl. It simply does not work that way.

It never occurred to me that my cousin was a doctor, simply because he dressed as one for Halloween last year. In no way was I tempted to show him my “rash”.

Nor do I believe that if a woman dresses like a slutty-anything it will turn her into one.

It’s as if men shamed us into wearing the slutty costumes and now women have shamed us out of them.

The talk of the town has been focused on judgement and bullying this past week. Ok, that is awesome. We all agree that judging each other based on what we wear to the dogpark or the mall is counter-productive. And that words are just as harmful as fists when it comes to bullying. So why is bashing the slut costume (and by extension, those that choose to wear them) exempted from this inclusiveness?

I rarely see people judging others based  on their choice of clothing for Mardi Gras or a pride Day parade…in these cases we generally applaud creating an environment that let people feel safe and welcome, regardless of how little clothing they have one..or the amount of body glitter they choose to abuse. Nor do we regard them as boring, right?

“Women can be anything their imaginations can dream of, as long as you can’t see their boobs.” Emily McCombs

The biggest argument I have heard about slutty costumes is that they are unoriginal…my kids have dressed as gorillas, pirates, football players and  the ubiquitous teletubby over the years. Not once have I heard them being criticized for their lack of originality. Florists, artists and Prince need to be original - Halloween just needs to be fun and whimsical and maybe even daring, so I simply don’t buy that argument.

Why are we so bent on taking choices away from women? Dressing sexy for Halloween can be fun. Or powerful. Or liberating. I may be missing the point but I am more attune then ever of how women bring one another down.  Is this simply just not another way of doing it?

(For the record, the picture I used was of Emily McCombs, managing editor of xojane.com [lest you think I just randomly googled slutty Halloween images...which I did anyway] – not only is she really really smart and sharp, she looks great as a nurse and she wrote an awesome piece about why she’ll be wearing that as her costume this year)