Halloween In The Media

As far back as we can remember the typical Halloween costumes have been ghosts, witches, vampires and every other scary creature that we hear in stories and decide to bring out in real life one night a year. But with growing technology and having social media be everyone’s main hub for news and trending topics we’re seeing an increase in popular costumes based off of what’s popular each year. For example this year a huge trending topic was Miley Cyrus’ performance at the VMA’s where she wore little to no clothing and danced with a foam finger. Seeing as this was such a specific social norm to violate people saw it as the perfect opportunity to dress like her for Halloween since it was so outrageous and recognizable. The costumes influenced by the media aren’t just limited to crazy celebrity outfits either. They can be from popular movies such as Minions from Despicable Me or fan favorites such as Walt from Breaking Bad. The norm is no longer to be scary even though this is what the holiday was set for but it is to show how clever you can be in imitating the most popular points of this year. 

Shown here is the official ‘most popular costume of the year’ according to studies shown on most commonly purchased outfit. Because of Miley’s wild behavior and unusual outfit that blew up in the media it became popular to imitate her. The article wrote about this also discusses the other influences I mentioned as the top 5 most commonly purchased outfits this year. 

http://smusmc.com/halloweens-hottest-costumes-inspired-social-media/

-Mare

This article mainly focuses on how quickly a well-thought-out costume (or thought to be original) becomes outdated because of social media. It gets talked about, shared, retweeted, liked, etc. people are constantly seeing it and getting inspiration from others, and of course, the media. Whatever is popular during the year, you can bet there will be 20 people around you dressed as the same thing. According to the article, this is how media destroyed originality in creating costumes, or deciding what to be. “Costumes are celebrated and critiqued as fast as Internet memes, bits of viral culture that quickly rise then flame out.” In this article it talks about a girl that spent $150 on her costume (outfit like Miley Cyrus was wearing at her VMA’s performance) in mid-september, but by mid-october, it quickly became outdated- because well, she’s not the only one going dressed up as Miley Cyrus. to read more about the article, click here

Miley Cyrus' performance was so popular that:

other celebrities dressed up as her

even kids are getting creative with it

and of course, you can't forget about the pets

here's even a tutorial on how to dress as Miley

& not to just limit on Miley, here are some others that I found on huffingtonpost

- Alex

Since I was young I have always noticed that Halloween costumes and themes have been affected by movies and music. Now a days costumes have become even sexier than they were years ago and this is attributed to movies that make young teens feel they need to be sexy on Halloween to be socially acceptable. The movie Mean Girls is just one of the many movies that have influenced young girls to dress sexy. In the article I read, it states “There's a line in the film Mean Girls, repeated by many girls, that Halloween is the one night a year you can (dress like) a slut.... So there is this attitude that (sexy costumes) are the cool costumes.” (USA Today) 

An example of this in Mean Girls is when one of the main characters dresses up as a “sexy mouse” and Lindsey Lohan not knowing that Halloween is the one day of the year to let your slutty fantasies flourish; dressed up as an “Ex-Wife”. She was looked at as weird and slightly an outcast. Society has changed and people have learned that for Halloween either your with it or your not. But the honest reality is that “Sexy is back” and people will continue to try and be sexy even if you must be a “sexy mouse”. Lastly, the article brings up a very good point:

“ The bigger issue is that this continues to teach girls every day that what matters most about them is their physical body. Their intellect, their ethics, their character are all secondary to the physical presentation and their need to please the world with how they look. And there's no doubt in the research that this (over sexualization of girls) is problematic for boys, too. As they hit adolescence they are surrounded by girls presenting themselves as much more adults than they really are. And one of the messages they can pick up is that to be a winner you have to "score." That means learning very inappropriate behavior that has very long-term effects on how they relate to women.” (USA Today)

We as adults and parents need to start teaching the younger generations that its not all about being sexy because society has made us believe that that’s what its all about. We must help our kids learn how to be creative again and how to respect their bodies and give off a different  self image on Halloween. You can be sexy but sexy doesn’t have to be half naked.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/27/costumes-sexy-halloween/3280857/ 

-Val