On my way to work this morning, I passed a sexy zombie stumbling out of a nightclub after a long night (and morning) of Halloween partying. In my humble opinion, the words "sexy" and "zombie" should never be used in the same sentence. I remember when Halloween costumes were supposed to look frightening, or at least disguise the person wearing it. Halloween (or Samhain for us Pagans), after all, is the time we honor those who have passed on, and welcome the coming winter as the summer has come to an end. It is believed that the tradition of dressing up for this holiday was to appease the evil spirits or impersonate the dead.

Sometime over the past few decades, the objective shifted. The goal is now for women to show as much cleavage and skin as possible. The shorter the skirt, the better. I don't necessarily understand how this became such a popular theme over the decades. I could say that the skank factor (yes, I made up a new term) that has become Halloween is the result of hook-up culture, but that would be inaccurate. As a young feminist, I should be thrilled that women feel comfortable enough with their bodies to display them for public viewing. I should be thrilled with women's sexual freedom and awareness. Overall, I am thrilled. However, I feel it's also possible to take anything to the extreme. Halloween traditions aside, I don't really think it's beneficial for women to prance down the street disguised as a sexy zombie, sexy nurse, sexy rainbow brite, or anything else with the word "sexy" tagged onto it. I would probably feel differently about all of this if sexual objectification and victim blaming wasn't so embedded in this society. Whenever I read about a woman who had been raped, there tends to be commentary regarding her style of dress. In a perfect world, or at least a more evolved one, women's clothing should never factor into a crime. Until then, I think the sexy costumes should be saved for the bedroom.