How Not to Be a Douchebag (Part II): Some Things To Avoid When Trick or Treating.

Its that time of year again kiddies; the few weekends of the year we're culturally encouraged to party like its 1999, dress inappropriately and make general nusinces of ourselves, parrot our favorite obscure pop culture references and turn them into costumes...or at the very least (if you're female) get your tits out and call it ironic.

And yes, I've made some ado about the stripperific problem with costumes for women once before...but it bares repeating. When "Sexy superheroine" costumes are quite simply struggling into high boots and a frilly skirt whist arching your back and popping through a boob window...it says way more about what we expect when it comes to women and sex appeal than it does about anything heroic. Good luck fighting crime in this, Supergirl, least of all without some serious wardrobe malfunctions.

If I'm interpeting Halloween properly, its supposed to be fun, mirthful and campy. Does it speak to deeper problems when you're  costume channels "Sexy Squaw" (which according to some sources, is a slur against native women in the first place), constitutes dressing up in blackface or fetishizes Asian women to the point of chariciture? Not always, but if you don't want to come off as a blithely unaware, unenlightened clod at your next Halloween mixer while in the "Ghetto Baby Mama" costume, you might want to parse this very helpful checklist Gawker has comprised to help you not make an ass of yourself. Here to help, avoid  being "that guy".


Update: A friend pointed out a really impressive psa about cultural parodying in costumes, and it really resonates. On the response the blogger has gotten, its something I've seen a lot when it comes to racism, sexism (the Catwoman post for example) and homophobia and why we can't seem to have rational conversations in public about them. Primarily because those outside of the "dominant cultural" perspective aren't impacted or moved by it and feel that its somehow trivial or unimportant to have to be made to care. Its disgusting how common this reaction is...but whenever anyone tries to point out that an ethnic or cultural minority might have a valid perspective outside of "sexy squaw"...well, then you're a party pooper that nobody wants to hear from or wants to be shouted down to the point of silence. All indications that these cultural issues are inherently linked to power, and the ability for the group that benefits from the trivialization being able to not be called out, or held accountable for doing so are typical and breathtakingly sad. Willful obliviousness always is.

Now hear this from the Mates of State- "Unless I'm Led"

Stripperiffic.

T-minus two days until costume party hijinks are to ensue...and I find myself still having persistent costume anxiety. I made the case for the angst that the lack of african-american superheroes and video game characters has caused my meager options...but after looking around the interweb and some costume shops at sexed up costumes the average woman is supposed to wear, I'm going to stop complaining.


http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/10/21/sexy-superhero-costumes-halloween/

In a world where most legitimate female superheroes are gender analogues of pre-existing male characters (which makes an interesting statement about the patriarchy in itself), and with the exception of Wonder Woman, many of the heroines of the X-Men, and the Invisible Woman (formerly the passive Invisible Girl whose power was to ...literally and metaphorically turn invisible) its only slightly annoying that so many costumes for women and girls are simply those male costumes in a mini-skirt and their tits out. Case in point: I've always been slightly amused at the sudden existence and popularity of jailbait Wolverine clone (literally) X-23. You know why X-23's so popular? Because it gives all the het-dudes who have jones for wolverine an underage, fetish gear wearing female to project that onto.

There are points where playing up sex appeal is entirely appropriate, but simply slashing parts of a costume, slapping on a skirt and high boots and glitter isn't as much about the costume as it is about the sexualization of the woman wearing it.


A lot of my friends who are women enjoy the gore of Halloween more than my male friends. Dressing up as puss oozing zombie people, sans-sexualization, is often their angle during Halloween, but when every other woman is a "sassy nun", or a "sexy bee" or... Sarah Palin, its conspicuous to be the woman in the giant furry costume, or the flesh eating zombie dripping blood. You can glance through a costume catalogue and glean a lot about gender expectations in our society. Male costumes paying homage to a particular character or person are a straight interpretation of said character whereas the female costume is not as much a feminization as it is a sexualization of the same costume.

One of the best aspects of Halloween (from someone who has always been somewhat leery of the holiday) is the irreverence, the subversion of "normal" societal expectations, and the ability-for just a night or a weekend- to turn convention on its ear. This assumption of mine seems to fail when we look at the staunch differences in presentation and expectation about gender in Halloween costumes. Whats the message when your 15 year old niece has being a "sexy bee" to look forward to, while her brother gets to actually BE a bumblebee. I'm dubious about whether or not focusing on the sexed up aspects of womanhood for even the most benign costumes is justified or even relevant. If a person wants to parade about in a corset for Halloween for the sake of it, it seems the spirit of the time...but to have the dearth of costumes aimed at women be these hypersexualized deviations of male costumes sends a very different, and not altogether encouraging message about gender differences when it comes to presentation. And as much as I like Sesame Street..."Sassy Elmo" makes me want to bang my head against the nearest wall repeatedly...


And now? Super sweet clips from my new favorite band Geographer, a lovely, lilting "Original Sin", and a poppy-yet melancholy number from Prozakk below. Dig it.

Great Effing Pumpkin.

Its that time of year again. Summer gives us the big kiss off and I gladly find myself dusting off my favorite blazers and unpacking sweaters. I've been really growing to enjoy the drive into the Poconos every afternoon as the slopes and mountains become dotted with more vibrant hues each day. Granted, there's little in life that is perfect, but I find its near impossible to angst when kicking through a pile of newly fallen leaves and the wind picks up.

Halloween is coming, and I've always been crap at this holiday. I love Autumn and just about everything that comes with it, but my slightly rigid religious upbringing hand waved anything to do with All Hallows Eve. (Wickedness, idle greed you get the drift. ) My birthday is coming up and I had wanted to attempt this year to have some grand video-game and comic book themed costume party at a tiny venue a few blocks from here, but I'm not sure how well that'll work out. I'm spazzing too much about what to do for a costume to focus on that right now. I'm not even fully sure I want to go to to any big lengths. In years past I'd throw on a jacket, pick out my once and former Afro and wander around costume parties and keggers with friends, only to be interrupted by the occasional passerby and asked "Are you supposed to be Lenny Kravits?" I'd shrug briefly, roll my eyes and say, "Yeah, sure, go with that." At other times I'd just say I was a "Jaded Northerner" and call it a day. I feel like I should make a go at doing the dorky costumery angle properly...but I'm not sure where to start. Its not like video games as a genre has a lot of African-American characters that aren't in sports or some glaring cliche (thanks Japan). And Comic books? I'm not sure if I want to be Luke Cage this year. The options?

• I've been playing a lot of Valve's zombielicious co-op FPS Left 4 Dead, and really have come to love the original cast's straight laced token Louis. Pros- It would be an insanely easy costume to make. All I'd have to do is shave my head put on a tie and buy lots of fake blood and an submachine gun.
• The other video game option I think might rock, is the surprisingly cool "team dad" of Final Fantasy XIII (despite being a slightly stereotypical royal ham in the game initially) Sazh. Loved the look, but I wonder how hard it'll be to reproduce the costume so late in the day. The jury's definitely still out here....a little help?

Speaking of zombie goodness, clever readers will have already heard of the horror comic the Walking Dead. AMC bought the rights a while back, and the impending series? Looking like gory gory goodness. Seriously, I'm looking forward.

It looks like its going to be another great day. I think I'm going to try to avoid the public house once I get back from class. The weekend was manic (went on a brilliant historic Halloween walking tour of Easton and much fun was had by all). I could stand to recover a bit. So check out this awesome song. Bloc Party. Nuff said. Later days.