[pullquote_right]“In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. 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.” – Linsay Lohan, “Mean Girls”[/pullquote_right]

If you asked anyone close to me what my favorite holiday is, they would say Halloween without hesitation. Through the years, I’ve worn costumes that ranged from a scary vampire to a pretty princess, and everything in between. But this Halloween, I noticed something. As we get older, the costumes get more provocative. It’s true that with age comes maturity, but these days, there’s a fine line between mature and “slutty.” Contrary to what’s popular in this day and age, Halloween should be synonymous with scary, not slutty.

This past weekend, I went downtown to the Monster Bash block party. My friends and I had a great time. However, I have to admit that if I were a guy, I would have had a way better time. Everywhere we turned, there were boobs, butts and legs galore. One individual who particularly stuck out was a woman wearing short-shorts, a bandeau and a wand.

I overheard her saying she was Glinda the Good Witch. I haven’t seen “The Wizard of Oz” lately, but I don’t remember Glinda looking like that. I’m actually kind of impressed, considering it was unusually cold that night.

You have to wonder if the women who decide to wear extremely provocative costumes do it for themselves or for other people. It’s probably both. A big part of what makes women want to dress sexy is the attention they automatically receive when they dress that way. What red-blooded straight male wouldn’t look at what’s on display for the world to see?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the freedom to dress as we please. Different strokes for different folks.  If you’ve got the confidence to go out in a sparkly bra and panties with fishnets and call it a costume, more power to you. Lets face it—we all enjoy feeling sexy once in a while. But ladies, why do we have to show off all of our bodies in order to be sexy? It just opens the door for men to objectify us, and other women to judge us. There’s no rule that says we have to buy into this particular Halloween stereotype.

In all fairness, women don’t have the greatest options of costumes at Halloween stores.  If we want to be a sailor or witch, something along the lines of “sultry sailor girl” or “seductive sorcerous” are our primary options.  Still, there are definitely ways of avoiding this, even if it means making our own.  It doesn’t help that men have the luxury of being whatever they want without the added pressure of showing all their “goodies.”

And what about those preteen and teen girls who look at costumes such as these, see the women wearing them, and believe that’s what they’re supposed to wear? Wal-Mart was even selling a costume designed for 2-year-old girls titled “naughty leopard,” which they quickly changed in response to the backlash. How do you explain to a 2-year-old what the word “naughty” means?

I’m generally not very conservative, but even I have to draw the line at “sexy Teletubby.” What used to be harmless fun has turned into a battle of who can reveal the most.  The need to eat candy and watch scary movies with friends has turned into the desire to wear as little clothing as possible without getting arrested for indecent exposure.

Quite frankly, the kids had it right the whole time.  All they care about is getting the best candy while wearing an awesome Halloween costume. Sometime between adolescence and now, we’ve lost sight of what Halloween is really supposed to be about.