Halloween is a week away! Whether you’re a pumpkin-carving, candy-craving kid-at-heart or can’t wait for the Hallows’ Eve hype to die like a horny teen in a slasher flick, you can’t deny that the air gets a little weirder this time of year.
I’ve always looked forward to getting creative and making my own costumes (I tend to plan my next costume on November first). This year, unfortunately, I have to work on Halloween, but if I can make it a party, I think I’m going as The Philk Spectore– a combination of Watchmen‘s Silk Spectre and the notorious music producer with the crazy ‘do:
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What I love about Halloween (besides the Misfits cover bands that offer me the chance to watch Mr. Peanut and Batman slammin’ together in a circle pit) is that this “silly” holiday is actually a great opportunity for debate about serious issues, from ethical candy to cultural appropriation to capitalism. It may be the one day a year when all it takes to spark a dialogue about sex and gender in our culture is a pair of hot pants and cat ears. Plus, Halloween is all about choices–and isn’t that something we can all get behind?
So what are your plans for Halloween? Will you, like BUST’s own Callie Watts, be testing your bladder control at a haunted house? Will you be representing a powerful woman from the past with costume tips from Take Back Halloween? Will you deck the halls with cobwebs and plastic spiders to greet trick-or-treaters, dance with the stars (well, people dressed up like the stars, anyway), spend the night in with some scary movies, or none of the above? Feel free to share your costume ideas or social commentary and get psyched (or not!) for the spookiest day of the season.
“This Trick’s a Treat,” Freeman Elliot, 1950. The Pin-up Files.
