Recently, I was a student at Santa Barbara City College in beautiful Santa Barbara, California. One of the last classes I took there was a sociology course in which I was assigned to break a gender norm, then report the results of breaking that norm. I decided the gender norm I wanted to break was that of females dressing promiscuously during Halloween.
The students who attend the city college and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) give new meaning to the word “partying.” Many of them live in a small, isolated community bordering UCSB, called Isla Vista (IV). The area is famous for its constant parties, but especially its Halloween celebrations on the street hanging over the ocean cliffs, called Del Playa Drive. Ever since it was named the best Halloween party spot by Playboy, the celebration has gotten completely out of control. People run around naked, drunken students fall off balconies and into the ocean below, sexual acts take place in the streets, and the transmission of STDs is at an all-time high.
The Halloween festivities on Del Playa Drive would be better described as "The Prostitute Parade" because the procession of scantily clad women being mentally undressed by drunken male passersby is reminiscent of the red-light district. Essentially, it’s like a combination of Woodstock and New Orleans during Mardi Gras, complete with riot police on horseback.
Despite living in IV, I was never the typical crawl-home-in-the-gutter-half-naked every Thursday through Saturday night type of a resident. I kept to myself and fled the area during Halloween. However, this year my friend, Tiffany, was visiting me from San Francisco, and she was absolutely determined to partake in the event. Informing me a week prior to her visit of her proudly proclaimed "naughty costume," I was instructed to find an equally promiscuous outfit (or lack of outfit) to wear.
The students who attend the city college and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) give new meaning to the word “partying.” Many of them live in a small, isolated community bordering UCSB, called Isla Vista (IV). The area is famous for its constant parties, but especially its Halloween celebrations on the street hanging over the ocean cliffs, called Del Playa Drive. Ever since it was named the best Halloween party spot by Playboy, the celebration has gotten completely out of control. People run around naked, drunken students fall off balconies and into the ocean below, sexual acts take place in the streets, and the transmission of STDs is at an all-time high.
The Halloween festivities on Del Playa Drive would be better described as "The Prostitute Parade" because the procession of scantily clad women being mentally undressed by drunken male passersby is reminiscent of the red-light district. Essentially, it’s like a combination of Woodstock and New Orleans during Mardi Gras, complete with riot police on horseback.
Despite living in IV, I was never the typical crawl-home-in-the-gutter-half-naked every Thursday through Saturday night type of a resident. I kept to myself and fled the area during Halloween. However, this year my friend, Tiffany, was visiting me from San Francisco, and she was absolutely determined to partake in the event. Informing me a week prior to her visit of her proudly proclaimed "naughty costume," I was instructed to find an equally promiscuous outfit (or lack of outfit) to wear.
Deciding to have a little fun of my own, I set out to find a costume that would be the most disappointing and embarrassing to Tiffany - one that covered more than 5% of my body. While shopping, I felt my cynicism intensifying and eventually decided on a costume designed for males. It was a full, baggy jumpsuit of an escape convict. The female version of the costume was an extremely short dress, designed to allow minimal coverage of everything that should be covered. Extremely low-cut and very tight, not even the most talented convict could escape a prison yard in that getup.
While I don't walk around every day dressed like an Amish woman, I do believe some degree of decency is necessary. I simply don't support the female degradation that women bring upon themselves every Halloween. I’m sure Susan B. Anthony rolls in her grave as girls in playboy bunny outfits hop across it. Women before us have fought so hard for respect and yet we find the need to turn a holiday based on ghosts, goblins, and vampires, into a parade of people looking like strippers or themed prostitutes. There are sexually charged firefighters, naughty cops, promiscuous pirates, and loose ladybugs! That’s right, we’ve even made a BUG sexual.
Tiffany arrived and we prepared to venture out into the night. She changed into her costume, which was a naughty secretary outfit. When I revealed my baggy jumpsuit, Tiffany stood drop-jawed and proclaimed, "You can't go like THAT!" It was amusing that she was objecting so strongly to my outfit, yet I was not supposed to react similarly to her outfit, which consisted of nothing more than a lacy bra and mini-skirt. She said that I would embarrass her and even stated, "If you go dressed like that, people will think you're a lesbian!" I couldn't believe that having full coverage equated me to a lesbian. I simply smiled and informed her that yes, I was going as I was currently dressed, and that if she objected, she could go alone. She pouted, and I was triumphant.
As we paraded around IV surrounded by the horny, the desperate, and the scantily clad, Tiffany seemed upset. She had gotten over the fact that I was "dressed like a lesbian," but something else was bothering her. I asked her what was wrong and she exploded, "Why isn't anyone hitting on me? Am I ugly? Am I fat?" The pathetic stupidity of my fellow females never ceases to amaze me. Distraught over the fact that she wasn't being sexually assaulted at every turn, Tiffany began pulling down her bra and adjusting her skirt so that she was showing even more skin. Eventually, a guy made a grab at her, followed by a sexually explicit comment, and she brightened right up, giggled, and pranced onward. Personally, I wanted to knock some sense into her. I was perfectly content with everyone ignoring me.
While I don't walk around every day dressed like an Amish woman, I do believe some degree of decency is necessary. I simply don't support the female degradation that women bring upon themselves every Halloween. I’m sure Susan B. Anthony rolls in her grave as girls in playboy bunny outfits hop across it. Women before us have fought so hard for respect and yet we find the need to turn a holiday based on ghosts, goblins, and vampires, into a parade of people looking like strippers or themed prostitutes. There are sexually charged firefighters, naughty cops, promiscuous pirates, and loose ladybugs! That’s right, we’ve even made a BUG sexual.
Tiffany arrived and we prepared to venture out into the night. She changed into her costume, which was a naughty secretary outfit. When I revealed my baggy jumpsuit, Tiffany stood drop-jawed and proclaimed, "You can't go like THAT!" It was amusing that she was objecting so strongly to my outfit, yet I was not supposed to react similarly to her outfit, which consisted of nothing more than a lacy bra and mini-skirt. She said that I would embarrass her and even stated, "If you go dressed like that, people will think you're a lesbian!" I couldn't believe that having full coverage equated me to a lesbian. I simply smiled and informed her that yes, I was going as I was currently dressed, and that if she objected, she could go alone. She pouted, and I was triumphant.
As we paraded around IV surrounded by the horny, the desperate, and the scantily clad, Tiffany seemed upset. She had gotten over the fact that I was "dressed like a lesbian," but something else was bothering her. I asked her what was wrong and she exploded, "Why isn't anyone hitting on me? Am I ugly? Am I fat?" The pathetic stupidity of my fellow females never ceases to amaze me. Distraught over the fact that she wasn't being sexually assaulted at every turn, Tiffany began pulling down her bra and adjusting her skirt so that she was showing even more skin. Eventually, a guy made a grab at her, followed by a sexually explicit comment, and she brightened right up, giggled, and pranced onward. Personally, I wanted to knock some sense into her. I was perfectly content with everyone ignoring me.
By breaking the norm of dressing promiscuously on Halloween, I gained new respect for myself and lost even more respect for the women around me. I noticed the female “dress code” is enforced in several ways. Females dress like porn stars in the making, and those who do not want to dress in that fashion are teased, labeled lesbians, or are just generally ignored. Males enforce this behavior because, well, why wouldn't they? Their choice is between hundreds of half-naked girls running around with every drunken step threatening a much-anticipated wardrobe malfunction, or hundreds of fully clothed girls running around intoxicated. The difference is in buttons and zippers. For the drunken, horny, young male, his dishonorable intentions are made increasingly difficult to execute with each layer added between him and his goal.
If females want equal rights, they shouldn't demean themselves on Halloween for the enjoyment of the same men from whom they desire respect. The multitude of consequences that come from enforcing the gender norm of females dressing promiscuously on Halloween all add up to one general consequence: the systematic undoing of everything females have fought for.