You wake up, groggy, hungover, confused. You cross the room; gingerly step over your abandoned sexy kitty ears, stumble into a friend, passed out on the ground, still wearing a plastic feathered headdress, and enter the kitchen in search of a tall glass of water and some Aspirin. It is November 1st, and you have survived yet another night of Halloween debauchery. As a good UC Berkeley student, you cannot help but analyze the implications of your night…

Halloween costume parties have always been a celebration of stereotypes; from innocent interpretations of the latest incarnation of Miley Cyrus to the more scandalous caricature of a nineteenth-century Mexican resistance fighter. When deciding on a costume, most Americans look for something recognizable, something that will spark acknowledgment, conversation, a laugh, and maybe even some sensual appreciation.

Halloween costumes depend on images or themes that will be easily understood by fellow party-goers. Halloween gives us a glimpse into the collective unconscious of our society; we are offered a parade of culturally relevant characters. Vampires and ghosts aside, culturally relevant costumes outline society’s ideas about the cultural “Other”, genders, and media superstars. A close look will reveal our biases, our prejudices, and overall, our naturalized acceptance of some societal ills.

Take the sexy kitty costume, for example. Such costumes typically involve little effort in preparation and rely on objectification of the female body. But this image is relatable; it reflects society’s preoccupation with the idealized female figure and female allure. It is so easy for us to don a short skirt and a revealing shirt and call it a costume. It reflects a societal image that has become dominant in our culture. There is nothing wrong with this take on the Halloween costume, however, placed in the context of our culture, problems may arise. Everyday we are bombarded with images of scantily clad women, which is often paired with scenarios of sexual seduction and submissiveness to masculine power. Popular movies, music, and advertisements perpetuate the idea and have naturalized to the point of acceptance. All too often it is assumed that because someone chooses to accentuate their figure through dress, they must be asking for sexual relief.

Our ASUC has launched its Cal Consent Campaign in order to remind our community of the potential dangers involved with assumed consent in the form of a revealing costume. Throughout the month of October, posters could be found in highly-trafficked areas on campus that reflected images of revealing costumes paired with reminders about the importance of consent. The campaign reminds us that simply because someone chooses a costume that may be socially decoded as sexual permission, that permission is invalid. We are not partying with a media stereotype; we are interacting with a human being who does not decide to abandon their morals for one night just because they have decided to wear a certain costume.

Another form of potentially dangerous Halloween costume is the recreation of the societal “Other”. At any given party, there is bound to be a handful of crude renditions of non-Anglo American cultures. Standing around the keg can be a Samurai, an Indian Princess, or an Egyptian Pharaoh. Cultural appropriation during Halloween plays into the general desire of creating a costume. It needs to be relatable and understood. Our society, as previously stated, depends on stereotypes to relate to other cultures. Many Halloween costumes employ these insensitive and incorrect images in order to gain recognition from others. This appropriation has become naturalized, like the idea of a woman wearing revealing clothing as automatically giving consent. Such stereotypical images appear in mass media and have constructed societal ideas about the “Other” for ages. Because we have become accustomed to the images that media perpetuates, we can automatically understand what someone is going for if they wear a cheap sombrero and a poncho. It may not be the intention to hurt and marginalize an entire group of people, but we need to realize that in dressing up as a cultural image filtered through an American lens, we reduce multifaceted cultures into a few recognizable and stereotyped items.

On campus, the ASUC has introduced a bill that would condemn parties which involve cultural appropriation. The bill, SB 16, would also urge the Greek community to take a sensitive approach to cultural and racial communities. While the bill deals with party themes, it stands as a reminder of the relation of cultural appropriation in party themes to costume decisions during a holiday like Halloween. We may not even think that dressing up as a “cholo” for a costume party will bring shame to an entire race. But before putting on some warpaint and a fake headdress, think about how a member of that community would feel in being reduced to an image that stands far from the actual, grounded image of a culture.

Insensitive costumes may or may not offend. My point is not to condemn outright all potentially offensive costumes. We are a society obsessed with images, blinded from the deeper meaning (or possible harm) that these images may bring. By purchasing such costumes, we replicate our society without questioning its intentions. As long as there remains a market for sexy gypsy costumes, these items will remain on the shelves of Halloween costume stores around the country. Media and commodity makers will continue to recycle culturally relevant images until the image stops making a profit. In our current situation, costumes that objectify the body or a race have yet to become dangerous or offensive enough to halt production. However, enough problems have arisen to catch the attention of our University community, which may be a step towards a larger recognition of the implications of a costume.

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