Sexy Halloween Costumes Are Terrible, Yes Or No

by Liz Colville

It’s pretty hilarious how many different types of Halloween costumes can be sexed up in honor of women who like to show a little more skin on what is usually a cold, blustery October night, and the viralest Halloween articles this year (every year?) address this permanent trend in exhausting numbers. Here’s a new take: “Maybe sexy Halloween costumes aren’t so bad!” says Erin Bradley, who writes the Nerve column Miss Information.

Second to pumpkin ale and candy hoarding, Halloween is about self-expression. Whether you want to get laughs, scare the neighbor kids, make a political statement, or display your fondness for the nursing profession while showing off your bodacious rack, all are valid options. When we start limiting what’s acceptable to wear on a day that’s essentially a bastardized mishmash of dozens of cultural and religious traditions, that’s when I call foul. I may not compliment you on your sexy NASCAR get-up, but I will defend with my last Snickers your right to wear one.

Bradley notes that sexy Halloween ladies are often accused of being “uncreative,” but she points out that nearly every packaged costume is. True. Then she makes a kind of “sexy Halloween ladies are people, too” point:

That vamped-up Little Bo Peep you’re sneering at is somebody’s best friend, wife, or chemistry teacher. Cut her some slack, chug some spiked cider, and enjoy one of the precious few holidays you’re not obligated to spend with relatives.

Valid points, but I still think the creative, utterly bizarre, funny, and endearingly lazy costumes of the world take the cake.