What’s Wrong With Halloween?

Halloween pumpkins

Maybe it’s that I’m sick of the sexy nurse costumes, completely demeaning my profession. 

Maybe it’s that I think making a “sexy Olaf” costume, sexualizing a little snowman from the movie Frozen is despicable.

Or perhaps it’s that Halloween is a six billion dollar, yes – six billion dollar – industry. 

But what really pushed me over the edge is the cute baby in the marijuana costume. For a mere $29.99, you too can dress your cuddly, darling to look like a pot plant. So let’s get this straight: Refugee moms are fighting to keep their babies alive, free from dysentery, scabies, upper respiratory infections, and numerous other diseases that one has to fight against in resource poor settings while moms in North America are purchasing costumes that resemble marijuana. 

If I thought I couldn’t go farther over the edge, I was mistaken.I became incensed when I found out that people are actually planning on dressing up as sexy Ebola workers. Yup. You read that correctly. A disease that has claimed countless lives, that has family and community members weeping at graves where they aren’t even allowed to wash the bodies of their loved ones, the spoiled West decides this is funny. So they decide that going as a Sexy Ebola Worker is a good idea? On what planet is this a good idea? I wouldn’t wish Ebola on anyone…but I’d like them to see the disease up close. Maybe it would change them. One can hope.

And that’s what’s wrong with Halloween. At some point Halloween stopped being about kids and cupcakes, about jack-o-lanterns and Trick or Treat, about dress up and bobbing for apples. It ceased being about children and it became about spoiled adults. Adults who evidently think it’s funny to sexualize a profession that they will cry out to at many times in their lives. Adults who want to party hard and drink harder. Adults who haven’t grown up, instead foisting their pitiful excuses for fun onto children who should be able to be pirates and ghosts and cowgirls. Adults who are callous to addiction, pain, and suffering.

So what’s wrong with Halloween? It’s been co-opted by spoiled grown ups – that’s what’s wrong with Halloween. 

You’re Welcome.

P.S – “The UN health agency said that 4,555 people had died from Ebola out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, as of October 14. A toll dated just two days earlier had put the death toll at 4,493 out of8,997 cases.” See Source

Oh Yeah! That’s Sexy….!

Picture Credit: http://pixabay.com/en/pumpkins-hokkaido-autumn-october-469641/

3 thoughts on “What’s Wrong With Halloween?

  1. If I may clarify something, Halloween was never just about children. The custom of dressing up in costumes was originally practiced by all ages, not just children. Whether in the Christian custom of All Hallows Eve, or the Celtic festival of Samhain, people disguised themselves to protect from the spirits that were believed to set about roaming the streets on the 31st. Jack-o-lanterns were carved with scary faces to scare the spirits away, and candles were lit to illuminate the way so the souls of the departed could find their way to their final resting places.

    Now, having said that, I agree wholeheartedly that Halloween, like all other major holidays, has been commercialised and sexualised to the point of being downright revolting. And it’s all been, for the most part, rather recent. The last time I was involved in trick-or-treating, which involved my dressing in all black and hiding on my rooftop waiting to scare passers-by, was about 15 years ago, and I don’t remember seeing a single “sexy” costume once all night. There were skeletons, ghosts, pumpkins, and the like, along with a few vampires, and one really impressive Oscar Mayer Wiener, but nothing “sexy,” and not a single pot leaf to be found. There were quite a few adults and little children, but most of my visitors were teenagers, and even they were dressed tastefully.

    But now, the world is going to hell in a hand basket, and no one seems to even notice.

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  2. I’ll second that rant! It is really a symptom of how sick and depraved our culture has become. And it also makes me deeply sad. How long will it be before we start reaping the fruits of all this?

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  3. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because I love to see all the kids in costumes. But I agree with you that adults have co-opted the holiday. What irritates me, besides the marijuana plant costume, is “sexy” costumes for children. It is beyond disgusting.

    Liked by 1 person

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