Kelli Kroepel | Opinion Co-Editor

Halloween season has always been my favorite part of the year. I just love the overall feeling during the month of October: the chilly air outside, the horror movies playing on AMC all month, and the Halloween decorations on the houses. While I was growing up, I would practically count down the months until I could start picking out my costume and enjoy all the Halloween specials that would play on Disney Channel. I won’t deny that Halloween definitely changes when you become an adult. When you’re in college, the popular thing to do is to dress up and go drinking with your friends.

The only thing I miss about Halloween when I was growing up was the overall innocence of the holiday. As a child, you would wear a costume that your parents bought you or made for you, and then you would go trick-or-treating with your family or your friends. The holiday was simple and innocent and that simple feeling has all faded away now. I have found that Halloween as an adult comes with much more complications. With all the time spent working jobs and going to class, it’s hard to find time to enjoy the holiday. It’s also hard to find the money to spend on the holiday as well. You don’t have parents to buy your costume anymore, and costumes for adults aren’t cheap.

As an adult female, when you go searching online or at the store for a costume to buy, it’s hard to find something that isn’t rather scandalous. Some people might find it ridiculous to dress slutty on Halloween, I, on the other hand, really just don’t care. If someone wants to dress like a slutty nurse or a slutty policewoman, why does that affect me? I like that Halloween gives us one day of the year to dress like something we’re not. It bothers me that there is so much judgment placed on females and how they dress on Halloween, and yet no one seems to care about what men wear during Halloween. I’ve seen men just wear underwear for their costume, but if a woman wears a skimpy outfit, the holiday has all of a sudden turned too explicit for people to handle. This holiday is just another example of how things are still double sided for men and women. In my opinion, people should stop criticizing what women wear during this holiday and just enjoy the humor in most of the costumes that people wear. Women deserve at least one night to dress indecently without facing harsh critique.

For Meghan Harmening’s take on Halloween, click here.

Graphic by Aaron Burns