‘Tis the season to slut it up
Erin Bradley has something to say about people who think it’s cool to rant about women dressing up like skanks on Halloween. The gist of it is “screw off.”
I’m with her 100% on this one. I can’t think of any good reason why anyone should get to dictate what other people wear generally, and I think Bradley’s spot on with thinking that the breed of criticism leveraged against women who wear whatever “sexy” costume is misogyny with twist of self-righteous indignation. She points out that the frequently made point that it’s dangerous to dress like a skank and run around drunk isn’t particularly valid as people do this, you know, most weekends, not just over Halloween.
I’d add that it really just shouldn’t be dangerous. I’m not denying it is, but, in an ideal world, you could haul your half-dressed drunk ass home any time day or night and be safe, at least from other people. Which is to say, sure you might sprain your ankle or make an ass of yourself, but you shouldn’t get drugged and/or pulled into a dark alley. Given the rates of crimes against women in this nation (a rape every 2.5 minutes, for example), it seems pretty unlikely that the major risk factor is Halloween costumes. Further policing the behavior (sexual or otherwise) of women is not a valid solution to violence against women — it just replaces one for of oppression with another.
And, for the record, I was a slutty nurse this year (see above). It’s actually fairly difficult to buy an off the rack costume that’s not a slutty something or other and/or made for a dude. And, also, the costume had a cute little hat.