Time to stop the sexualisation of Halloween outfits
By Melissa McNaught
The first time I was catcalled I was 11 years old.
I was wearing my primary school PE uniform shorts. The second time I was sexualised, I wore my brand-new uniform skirt I had picked out excitedly for my first year of high school.
The last time I wore a school skirt, I was 13 and had never been so aware of my body nor the shame attached to it.
This Halloween, hundreds of women will present as schoolgirls again: Only this time with shorter skirts and their shirts tied beneath their breasts. From Amazon to SHEIN, the sexy schoolgirl ‘costume’ will once again take centre stage as a tried-and-tested bestseller.
A report from children’s charity Plan International UK uncovered the rotten statistic that one in three girls have been sexually harassed in public while wearing school uniform.
And the sexualised image of young schoolgirls is not restricted to the week of Halloween. In the UK, it’s entirely legal for pornographic content to include the uniforms we dress our little girls in for their first days of school each year.
Furthermore, this seasonal objectification is not limited to sexy schoolgirl attire. Nuns are women who intentionally take a vow of chastity. Their religious garments are far more than uniforms, functioning as sacred often blessed reminders of their vows and consecration to God.
Despite these practicing women’s publicly known desire to remain separate from sexual aspects of life, their image is still objectified each Halloween.
Even fictional women are not spared this objectification. The same female characters hailed by the media as wonderful role models for young girls are stripped down for the male gaze each October.
Wonder woman forgoes her full coverage body suit for a bra and leaves her skirt at home. Supergirl similarly is undressed, leaving her chest decorated with her exposed breasts in place of her S-Shield.
Cinderela, Belle, Snow White, and Aurora swap their ball gowns for belly tops, and Mulan leaves the armour at home.
Women are entitled to dress as they please. However, it is also true that much of our social culture has been historically set by men, and it’s men who dominate much of today’s media.
In the 2004 teen cult classic ‘Mean Girls’ there is a famous quote that has lingered within pop culture for the better part of two decades. In the film, Cady said: “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 key word in this quote is “Girls.” Girls, not women, are who this line addresses. The 2024 remake of the film proved that two decades of feminist social change have done nothing to alter this perverse notion. In the 2024 version, Gretchen says: “If you don’t dress slutty, that is slut-shaming all of us.”
Ultimately, this coming Halloween will see the streets of Glasgow be taken over by sexy schoolgirls and superheroes alike. We will send our young girls Guising. Then come Monday morning we will dress those same little girls in the exact uniform dozens of adult women donned for sex appeal the previous weekend.
With this in mind I have to ask – as adults should we not encourage a more dignified tomorrow?