It’s time for these costumes to retire. Graphic by Abby Hoehn.
The season of Halloween is upon us and thus brings costumes for those to don whilst partying, trick-or-treating or passing out candy. For some, it’s a chance to showcase their creativity and have some fun with their costumes. For others, it’s a chance to wear as little clothing as possible and have a valid excuse for it. Whatever your reason for dressing up may be, it better not be one of these costumes that we all have decided we are sick and tired of seeing every year.
MADDIE WOOD | OPINION EDITOR | mawood1@butler.edu
Sexy nurse
One of the staples that you can almost guarantee you’ll see on the Spirit Halloween shelves and brushing past you with a drink in their hand at a party is a sexy nurse. While it is an easy fallback costume when all else fails, I truly just hate it. It lacks creativity and originality and it’s also just weird. When I think of a nurse, I think of a tired and overworked individual in their scrubs covered in various mystery stains who really deserves a nap. Not to say that nurses can’t be sexy, but I feel it’s weird to go out of your way to make them sexy. Instead, why not make a fun little pun out of your costume, or go as something really scary to bring out the real essence of the holiday? Leave those poor nurses alone; they go through more than enough and don’t need to be glorified sex symbols every October.
ANNA GRITZENBACH | ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR | agritzenbach@butler.edu
Playboy Bunny and Hugh Hefner
Maybe I’m an agent of the liberal agenda or maybe I’m just tired of seeing sexist Halloween costumes — we may never know. Not only is the history of Playboy deeply rooted in misogyny, but it’s incredibly frustrating to see women put in all the effort in a costume that allows the man to sit back and reap the benefits with minimal effort — truly embodying Hugh Hefner. Surely, we’re all over this costume now; it’s boring, it’s tired and quite frankly just kind of lame. The fun of Halloween is putting in the effort and being original. If being original means slapping on a pair of bunny ears and forcing your boyfriend to wear a robe, then I fear you might need to stay in this Halloween.
REECE BUTLER | MANAGING EDITOR | rmbutler@butler.edu
Deer in headlights
Usually, when given the opportunity to share my Halloween expertise, I try to avoid overt callouts. In fact, I am generally known for my kind and forgiving spirit, which guides me to assist the less creative on this sacred holiday. However, there is one particularly uncouth costume that seems to rise in popularity among cheugy couples with each new year — deer in headlights. This costume is almost exclusively worn by heterosexual couples as a two-part couples costume. The man is dressed as a deer, in a passably normal costume, while his female significant other wears the markers of an anthropomorphic two-lane road with two car headlights placed … well, I’ll let you guess where they’re placed. To me, this costume is the laziest — yet most direct — way to communicate your outright endorsement of the objectification of women. If you’re the guy, you’re saying your partner has exactly two admirable traits, and, if you’re the girl, please start respecting yourself. You are the new-age plug and socket costume and I hate you.
DAVID JACOBS | ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR | drjacobs@butler.edu
Celebrities
Call me a party pooper, but why as a grown adult are you dressing up as another person? Is it an envy thing? I’m not sure. A notion of over-consumerism and false reality? Perchance. I understand movie or TV characters — there’s just something about dressing like a celebrity that irks me. Wear fun costumes, celebrate with your friends and eat all the candy. Let’s just not conform to the consumerism that is dressing like celebrities when there are so many better options to choose from while doing so.
AIDAN GREGG | MANAGING EDITOR | agregg1@butler.edu
Mummy
As a student journalist by night and archaeologist by day, I find myself uniquely positioned to tell you that your mummy costume is stupid. At the risk of receiving a belligerent — yet accurate — email accusing me of having the “woke mind virus,” I would argue that the costume itself is fundamentally problematic. Dressing as a mummy mirrors a Victorian, rather colonial fetishization of ancient Egypt. Mummified remains were once dubiously removed from tombs and variably housed in museums that only affluent Europeans had access to — or literally eaten. On a practical note, the flimsy two-ply toilet paper you have wrapped around your torso will inevitably become undone as the night’s shenanigans progress. In the event that you have clothes on underneath, congratulations — you look careless and lazy. If you have made the bold choice to go nude beneath your wrappings, I sincerely hope you are arrested for indecent exposure — perhaps by a sexy cop.
CHELSEA COPELAND | OPINION COLUMNIST | ccopeland@butler.edu
Sexy Cop
Frankly, you should be arrested for wearing this. Halloween is a time to dress up and stand out, yet being a sexy cop is the one thing that conforms to societal expectations more than anything. When provided with a singular day to be as weird or sexy as you please, you choose to dress up as a career you see daily. Although your version is likely significantly cuter, it is not original at all. Why would you want to blend in on the one weekend where you can be whatever you want regardless of how weird it may be? Trust me when I tell you that if you decide to go as a sexy cop for Halloween there will be at least 10 other people at the same event as you, wearing an identical navy bodysuit with the $10 badge, hat and handcuff combination. If you choose to dress as a cop, I suggest you stay home and eat a donut, maybe even dress like one — actually, let’s not.
SLOANE MACARTHUR | OPINION COLUMNIST | mmacarthur@butler.edu
Food costumes
I myself love food and cooking, but I don’t want to see those foods walking around the street asking for candy. Halloween is a time when you can express yourself, but nothing is more unoriginal than someone dressed up as a tomato that is ⅓ a BLT group costume. The number of food costumes seen on Halloween is atrocious, walk into any store and bam you’re stuck with the abomination of food costumes. There are websites out there to help you find original costumes. So please, walk away from the fridge and find something actually worth wearing.
SILAS OWENS | OPINION COLUMNIST | szowens@butler.edu
Batman
Gotham City might need saving, but not by you. We can’t all be Batman little bro. The bar for men’s Halloween costumes is generally pretty low, but it doesn’t get less original than this. What’s a Halloween party without at least one antisocial Batman standing awkwardly in the corner thinking he’s cool and mysterious? The costume has barely worked for anyone else and probably won’t for you either, so stop scrolling through gym Reels, leave your room and think of something just a little bit more creative before it’s too late. And if you ever want to be worthy of the Batman costume maybe find some hobbies other than benching on leg day and being scared of cardio.
SADIA KHATRI | OPINION COLUMNIST | sskhatri@butler.edu
Cultural appropriation
If you decide to partake in Halloween festivities, I better not see any cultural appropriation. Do not let Halloween be the reason you end up losing a job or a scholarship because you decided to dress up in a costume that mocks other cultures, identities or backgrounds was a good idea. If you have any doubts that your costume might be a bit offensive or appropriative, do everyone a favor and stop while you’re ahead. Halloween — or any other holiday, for that matter — is never an excuse to be offensive.
JOHN DUNN | OPINION COLUMNIST | jcdunn@butler.edu
Headband costumes
The headband costume is the quintessential low-effort costume. All you have to do is wear a headband with two devil horns and a red shirt and suddenly I’m expected to believe you are the fallen angel himself. In the same vein, two cat ears don’t make you a cat, nor do two antennas and a silver shirt make you an alien. I am not docking the headband as a valuable contribution to a costume. All I am saying is at least draw on some makeup cat whiskers or something rather than throwing on a headband and calling it a day. But we are all college students — if you don’t turn your homework in until 11:57 p.m., I shouldn’t have expected you to be proactive about your Halloween costume.
