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
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
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:
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be original) becomes outdated because of social media.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
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.
-Val