Saturday Audience Participation
A couple days ago, I got the following e-mail from a reader:
I haven't seen you discuss the general trend of grown ups in the West dressing up for Halloween. I find it a good example of the general decline of our civilization. The slutty costumes now seem to be the required wear for younger women.The reader didn't elaborate on his reasoning other than mentioning slutty Halloween costumes incisively noted in Mean Girls. As to his larger point, I imagine he's lamenting the puerile nature of dressing up for Halloween and the escapist fantasy engaged in by supposedly upstanding adult citizens. A healthy society would not encourage its members to act like children, to gallivant around town in absurd costumes. And it surely wouldn't sanction girls dressing up like whores all in the guise of fun and fantasy.
But honestly, I'm not sure I buy this. And I'm unaware of Halloween's history amongst adult groups, so I can't put it into context historically. I personally don't get why grown men and women like this sort of thing, but it seems pretty innocuous to me. Of course, I'm also open to the opposite point of view.
Today's Question: What do you think of the larger societal implications of this practice? Did you dress up and go out socially this Halloween season or will do so this weekend? If yes, what did you wear and what other costumes did you see? If not, why not? Do you think it's stupid, fun, juvenile, or value neutral?
28 comments:
What Islam in the West really is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWDB-e9q2H8&feature=channel
Eh. There have always been things like costume parties, Carnaval, Mardi Gras, etc. Seems harmless to me, too.
I'm more worried about the kind of unrealistic attitudes and entitled mindsets purveyed in our crass entertainment media--TV shows like Sex and the City, movies like Eat Pray Love, etc.
There is a long history of carnival and ceremonial days of misrule in western culture. It's hard to see the contemporary American night of fantasy and misrule as a sign of decline or decadence.
I don't go to costume parties on Halloween because I live in a country that doesn't celebrate it, but I thought they were a lot of fun when I was living in Boston and especially San Francisco in the 80s.
I dressed up this year, not merely for a party but FOR WORK! My whole office agreed to do so and since it's my first year I thought I should fit in.
As I should have known, I was the only male in the office in a costume. I really have no idea if office efficiency was low for that day - there was so much carbohydrate, picture-taking, laughing, visiting desks for decorations, etc.
As to the young women in sexy outfits - not at my office! Only two of the larger women in their fifties dressed like tramps - tottering edifices of pale flesh in tights and lacy sleeves (what are those sleeves that Madonna fans used to wear ... that aren't attached to anything??).
Lots of the women didn't dress up either. Next year I think I'll pass. It was harder to concentrate in strange clothing.
I love them and like to dress up. I am in the camp that thinks it's good fun and a part of the culture.
My husband, since he was 10 years old has thought dressing up was stupid. He just doesn't understand the point. He has never participated in dressing up nor does he like to even attend themed parties. It's not about protesting the decline of Western civilization- he just thinks its really damn stupid and not masculine.
"I dressed up this year, not merely for a party but FOR WORK! My whole office agreed to do so and since it's my first year I thought I should fit in. "
We all dressed up at my job too. Even the boss. I don't see the harm. It's fun to be a little silly sometimes.
i am one costume-wearing adult who is super hungover
Halloween is the ultimate white holiday... not a SWPL white holiday, but one honored at colleges throughout America.
Fraternity parties are some of the best Halloween moments around and, better, lily white suburbs offer the best authentic American experience of Trick-or-Treating.
http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2010/10/return-of-halloween-devils-night-is.html
This is Brandon the one who wrote the note STDV is commenting on. I think it is a gut reaction I have to grown ups wearing costumes. They look ridiculous and I think it is a visible sign of what is going on generally in especially young adult white culture in America. Its all about the party. Not having kids and acting like kids.
I went out last night. Dressed up like a cave man. Pasted some of my pubes on my face.
StuffBlackPeopleDon'tLike is correct here. Black people think Halloween is a corny white holiday. I'm used to walking into a house party or the club district downtown in my costume with the black guys looking at me with that "who is this stupid white boy?" look on their face. Oh well.
The following is a copy of a letter to the editor that was printed in the Nashville Tennessean yesterday on this subject. It is meant somewhat tongue in cheek. I have received hate mail as a result with the expected immature statements you would expect from grown ups wearing costumes.:
Another Halloween approaches with the expectation of witnessing the increasingly modern trend of grown men and women wearing costumes.
Not just nice parents tolerating wearing them at their children’s parties, but adults wearing costumes to work and all-adult parties.
Of course, we can expect even more of the obligatory tiny costume versions of various characters now ostensibly the standard for women under 40.
There can be no greater sign that our culture has reached the zenith of its intellectual, spiritual and artistic decline than a 30-year-old man dressed as Gumby.
Chuck those black guys are right.
anonymous/Brandon:
I see what you're saying, but I think it could actually be viewed as a traditionalist type experience. Halloween is distinctly Americana.
But to your point. Halloween and New Years Eve draws people out of their homes who don't go out on a regular basis. Notwithstanding the dangers of large groups of drunk people gathering together, I think that a one-off celebration of a distinctly American "holiday" is a good thing. People who go out on a weekly basis - the ones you are aiming your acting and dressing like children comment at - are gonna be out no matter what. Halloween has nothing to do with their overall child-like mindset.
For many, Halloween is a time to lighten up - that's all it really is. They get drunk too and act like sluts, but they're doing that on every other Friday and Saturday of the year.
anonymous:
yeah like black guys have any grounds on which to clown on us. they're sooo serious about their lives right? i think its more a testament that i can dress up like a fool one night a year and compartmentalize that behavior rather than feeling that dressing up like a fool once a year makes me a fool for the rest of the year.
their behavior is another instance of black oppositional culture. they can't be seen as doing anything distinctly white.
A few years ago some friends of ours threw and adult Masquerade/new house party when they moved back to town from a couple of years living in Europe for his job assignment. It was not actually on Halloween as we all have kids to entertain on Halloween. None of us are idiots, so we wore interesting fun historical figures as costumes. Someone was Henry VIII and someone Joan of Arc etc. No one came in any nasty crass outfits. No surprise. We had great food, wine etc. and checked out their new house and pool. It was nice to see them again as well as some other friends we don't see so often.
Maybe fifteen years ago, I went to another one for adults, with the theme 3rd world beach party. It was hilarious. Costumes etc. cool and fun.
I wouldn't be up for it every year, but they were fun and not just stupid.
Halloween is tough for some oppressed folks. You have to actually plan and get your costume together etc. That requires thinking ahead and thinking creatively. The are too oppressed to think and create.
Oppression comes in many forms including participating in adolescent activities.
Maybe blacks don't like dressing up for Halloween since many of them already dress like clowns the rest of the year.
As to the original question, I think adults dressing up is generally pretty harmless. Of course, it is often done distastefully, which is a problem, but that's a symptom of civilizational decline, not the cause of it.
By the way, I went to a performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show last night (I didn't dress up though). If you want to see some degenerates, that's where you'll find them. I've never seen that many men in corsets or gold underwear.
Jeremy Piven in the under-appreciated 1998 TV series "Cupid" (not the lame remake with Jim Cavaziel) noted that Halloween was America's greatest hook-up day. Exceeding even New Years.
Of course girls/women dress like slutty nurses, etc. Its all about looking to hook up with the change of the seasons, something deep and lasting in European culture. Samhain mutating into All Hallow's Eve, old Celtic and Germanic traditions, gods, and festivals being thinly Christianized, and tied to harvest and the change of the seasons which are vital in Northern Europe.
Yeah, newsflash, Europeans are not Africans nor Middle Easterners. As much as the critique of Northern Europeans as "uptight" is made, the reality is that seasonal blow-outs (Halloween/Samhain/All Hallow's, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Easter, Fourth of July/Summer) are far deeper and culturally meaningful than the sameless days of other cultures. Europeans move with the seasons (we had to).
"Jeremy Piven in the under-appreciated 1998 TV series "Cupid" (not the lame remake with Jim Cavaziel) noted that Halloween was America's greatest hook-up day. Exceeding even New Years."
Ha, that reminds me of three chicks back in college with coordinated costumes:
Ho' (prostitute)
Ho Ho (dessert cake)
Ho Ho Ho' (prostitute in mini santa suit)
Maybe what's really bothering you is the super-extended adolescence of modern culture.
In the past, middle class people in their 20s would be too busy with their children to have a holloween party.
"In the past, middle class people in their 20s would be too busy with their children to have a holloween party."
He, he. According to Obamacare folks in their mid 20's are still children themselves and should be allowed to stay on mommy and daddy's insurance!
I wore a long red-blonde wig when I went out last night, and I spent most of the night teasing girls who couldn't figure out who I was supposed to be. A bunch of them asked if I was Ron Weasley, who I learned is a Harry Potter character.
Adults dressing up for Halloween is as corny as can be. I'm a White man and I don't relate to it at all.
But girls dressing up as sluts doesn't make them sluts. For the most part it's just an act.
Actress Alyson Hannigan and her husband and child.
Is hubby beta or an alpha who doesn't give a shit?
I don't get some of the criticism.
We live in an ultra-wealthy, ultra-White suburb of SF. Every year the educated, successful parents and their well-scrubbed kids have a fine time going to parties and trick-or-treating. It's good clean fun. Next morning everyone goes back to their fancy schools and lucrative jobs.
It is true that adult Halloween seems to be more of a California thing, than, say, Omaha. I hate to sound like Richard Florida, but perhaps adult Halloween correlates with regions with a strong knowledge economy and lots of creative professionals.
Re European precedents for grown-ups temporarily acting silly, don't forget the Roman Saturnalia, "introduced around 217 BCE to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians."
AΠOΛΛΩΝ
It is true that adult Halloween seems to be more of a California thing, than, say, Omaha. I hate to sound like Richard Florida, but perhaps adult Halloween correlates with regions with a strong knowledge economy and lots of creative professionals.
Nowhere is Halloween bigger than in Detroit -- birthplace of Alice Cooper, ICP and "horrorcore rap"; second home of Kiss; infamous epicenter of Devil's Night arson. Halloween is not a child's holiday here. It's a grownups' holiday, one enshrined in teen-hood and wildly celebrated well past middle age.
That's generally the case throughout the Midwest, but Detroit takes it above and beyond.
So, no, I don't think it has anything to do with knowledge economies or creative professionals.
It is a phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century and, yes, it's a sign of decadence and cultural decay.
Halloween in some form or fashion has been a Western tradition for thousands of years....pre-dates Christianity. Most people love it...in fact I have to admit it's my favorite holiday. I'm only 20, but many of my fondest memories occurred on various Halloweens. The only people who don't seem to enjoy it are religious wackos. Also it does seem to be a "white" thing too...growing up I remember black kids never wore costumes while trick-or-treating, they simply just showed up at the door asking for candy haha.
So, adults dressing up in costumes on Halloween is badwrongfun but the whole soulless capitalist Hallmark-ification of an ostensibly religious holiday is Ok?
Isn't getting presents on Christmas Day a bigger symbol of cultural decay than just about any other widely celebrated holiday?
Not to mention that the costume-wearing origins of Halloween tradition were that of an adult holiday. As should be expected, in America, the traditional customs were supplanted in favor of New English 'Puritan' secularist 'community buidling' practice of dressing children up in inadequate garb, and thrust them and their weak immune systems into the dark and cold to eat food prepared by strangers.
If anything this 'traditional' American practice of Halloween being for kids is a sign of American decadence; as it follows the time honored of American tradition of absolutely shitting all over any tradition in an attempt to make it better somehow.
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