Childhood Halloween was cool and all, but for me, it’s been infinitely more fun as an adult. Maybe it’s the escapism, maybe it’s the fact that it’s a holiday just about fun and freedom, maybe it’s the getting to laugh at your friend’s ridiculously on-point early '80s gym coach costume, or maybe it’s the booze.
Either way, I’m not alone. This holiday has steadily been picking up steam in the adult world.
Besides the fact that there are more block parties, house parties, and people turning their homes into haunted houses for the public than ever before, according to the National Retail Federation, this year we’re climbing to a new record high, with the NRF saying we’ll drop $9.1 billion on Halloween swag. In 2012 it was $2.9 billion, so we’re clearly developing a habit. We love our spooky decorations, costumes, candy and greeting cards.
Wait, what? Yeah, I know, but the NRF listed that “nearly four in 10 [Halloween] celebrants plan to purchase greeting cards.” Didn’t know that was a thing, but whatever your into, man.
Unless, that is, what you’re into is being a sombrero-wearing, tequila-swilling Mexican, a Native American squaw, or a rice paddy farmer, because these days, that shit don’t fly on account of cultural appropriation. (Also, those costumes are just lazy.) Just sos we’re all on the same page, I’m working off of The Oxford Online Dictionary definition of cultural appropriation, which is, ”the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”
Just between us, I never thought of those kinds of costumes as being offensive until a couple of years ago when the idea was introduced to me. This is probably because I’m white.
But for me, there are so many levels of offensive costumes on Halloween, which I thoroughly enjoy because I like dark humor, that I was kind of like, “Really? It’s Halloween. Must we find something that’s off limits?” I get it, though. People don’t want their heritage to be belittled into some kind of imbecile caricature, especially by cultures that have historically oppressed them or treated them as less than equal.
So here are some ideas of what’s okay to dress as for Halloween if you don’t want to be the lazy asshat at the party.
Be that guy from COPS; be reporters in a windstorm; be Katniss; be Plastic Man; be Chewbacca; be a Depression Era pregnant housewife with a cigarette dangling from your miserable lips; be Wayne and Garth; be the leg that was wrongly amputated; be your own damn 5th grade class photo.
Also, it’s Halloween! Go classic scary move. Be Pinhead; be Carrie in a prom dress covered in pig’s blood; be a possessed Regan from The Exorcist.
What I’m saying is, put some goddamned effort into it, people!
The thing is, we have plenty of options. We have a bounty of absurdity and fabulousness within our own history and pop culture that does not include belittling other cultures.
We’re grown-ups now. On Halloween, let’s own that shit.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 2, 2017.