By: Emma Nicolaysen, W*SS WILD Chair Intern
"In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. The hardcore girls just wear lingerie and some form of animal ears… unfortunately, no one told me about the slut rule, so I showed up like this."
– Cady Heron, Mean Girls (Waters, 2004)
Cat, nurse, cop, pumpkin, Energizer Bunny. Just like Barbie said, you can be anything— though the implications during Halloween in ‘Girl World’ are a little different.
During Spooky Season, there is a stark difference in the advertising and appearance of women’s Halloween costumes versus men’s. Near the start of the 2000s, revealing costumes for women started becoming a major aspect of Halloween. This trend gained traction on college campuses, where everyone was less likely to go around the neighborhood for Reese’s peanut butter cups and more likely to go to a house party. The focus was no longer on horror— it was now a chance to go out with friends and party.
However, the way the holiday evolved looked very different for men and women. Over time, social expectations began assuming and expecting women to dress in revealing costumes for Halloween. The “slut rule” mentioned in the 2004 hit film Mean Girls is a perfect example of this expectation. Although a definition is never explicitly spelled out, it’s pretty obvious what Cady is referring to: you will be an outcast if you don’t dress this way.
These trends have been perpetuated by television shows, influencers, costume stores, and beyond. If you look up Spirit Halloween— which itself deserves a W*SS analysis— and find their medical costumes, there is a stark difference between the choices presented for men and women. One of the men’s costumes, titled “Adult Lab Coat Doctor Costume,” depicts a smiling, professional, necktie-clad man in a white coat. But there are no “Doctor” costumes for women. There is an “Adult Say Ahhh Nurse Costume” and an “ER Hottie Nurse Dress Costume.” Nice! They’re dressed exactly how you would picture them; Spirit Halloween believes in the slut rule.
But a negative view on revealing costumes is itself harmful. In a world where women and girls have been told their clothes are too revealing, too modest, too formal, too thin, too colorful—too whatever— there is power in a holiday where the entire point of the clothes you wear is that you get to choose them. Yes, there are degrading social expectations. Yes, there is the slut rule, if you believe in it. Yes, Spirit Halloween actually put the words “say ahhh” on one of their women's costumes. But the changes in Halloween over time to a more sexualized holiday and the evolving role of Halloween on college campuses have never erased the core idea of choice. Halloween is a day/night/weekend where you get to decide how to show yourself off to the world and express your creativity or sense of style. Both modest and revealing clothes can come with their own sort of empowerment when we choose them for ourselves. It represents an appreciation of our identities and an ownership of our bodies and our styles. In Mean Girls, Cady showed up how she wanted to, and by the end of the movie she is able to embrace that sense of self. That single scene is a clear message: at the end of the day, no one gets to tell you how to dress for Halloween.
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