SRBFF Co-authors: Jocelyn Wentland & Amy Muise (http://ediblepantiesblog.com/)
So ladies, what are you dressing up as for Halloween this year? A nurse? A kitten? A school girl?
No, you’re not. You are dressing up as a naughty nurse, a kinky kitten or a sexy school girl. Are we right?
Halloween seems to be a girl’s get out of jail free card in terms of sexual dress and behaviour.
So what is up with Halloween and dressing like a hussy? Well according to famous Hollywood quotes: “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it” (Mean Girls). And it would seem that this is the norm these days.
But why exactly is Halloween any different? Well, us awesome sex researchers like to look at the context or environment in which those sexy behaviours occur. Think ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ or any other combination you prefer.
And what we find is that when people are on vacation, they adopt a different set of rules. A different moral compass, if you will, steers their behaviour. And this moral compass generally points towards the “Anything goes” direction compared to the “Think about what you are doing” direction.
Read: heavy alcohol/drug use, public displays of sexualized behaviour (did someone say grinding?), throw in some wet t-shirt contests and some foam parties, generally loose morals (if you can say any morals at all), and I believe you’ve just described Spring Break. Cancun or Daytona Beach. Take your pick.
On most days, exposing our breasts to complete strangers for 50 cent beads, might seem ridiculous. But make it a party, add some alcohol and we call that Mardi Gras. As you can see, in terms of sexual expression, context matters.
In first year University, Halloween is one of the heaviest drinking days of the year (right up there with St Paddy’s day and New Year’s eve) and research shows that those in costume drink the most.
Alcohol + a costume = Spring break and Mardi Gras all in one night. Halloween provides an opportunity to adopt a different identity and if you are a woman, well, your adopted identity likely wears significantly less clothing than you normally do.
A simple “Halloween slutty costume” Google search certainly lends some credit that there is something happening with women’s Halloween costumes. One company had 5 pages of costumes under the heading “slutty Halloween costumes.”
No wolf in sheep’s clothing here, folks. It is more like a sheep in wolf’s clothing…very revealing wolf’s clothing.
And what are the authors wearing this Halloween? You’ll have to check back après-Halloween to find out.
