The mornings are getting colder and local grocery stores have set pumpkins outside their stores for sale. Fall has announced its arrival, and with it comes Halloween. One of Halloween’s biggest traditions is dressing up, and although it should be an opportunity to freely express yourself without feeling criticized, most feel pressure to follow what’s trendy and cool to avoid social criticism. A majority of people seem to have found themselves fearing other people’s opinions more than gory Halloween movies or ghost filled haunted houses. So, what horrors really live behind the process of dressing up for Halloween?
Due to the pressures people face when deciding a Halloween costume, a majority of people pick and choose their costumes based on what will minimize judgment from their peers. Senior Isabelle Porcella says, “I think there’s [this] pressure in high school to dress up as something that’s more attractive,” and “there’s kind of like a stigma against it.” Porcella continues saying, “I think people kind of downplay Halloween [costumes] because they’re afraid of being judged for doing too much.” Most people prefer keeping their Halloween costumes calmer and avoid completely dedicating themselves to a costume. Freshman Megan Polk agreed: “You don’t want to have a dumb costume. You want to look good.” This fear of having a dumb costume presents the question: is it more important to have a costume society approves of, or having a costume you approve of?
Dressing up plays an extremely significant role in Halloween and most people put a lot of thought into their costume each year; but sometimes, too much thought can be put into a costume. Porcella and Polk both feel that a phobia of criticism impacts how people dress up. Porcella says, “I think a lot of people are afraid to do too much with their costumes, because they feel like they’re going to look stupid or they’re going to get judged.” Many, if not all costumes are a reflection of a person’ s interests. Freshman Aubrey Lieneweg builds on to Porcella and Polk’s ideas stating, “[I think others] don’t want people to think that they’re weird if they dress up as something they like.” Some people have a fear of being judged for who or what they dress up as, often resulting in a lack of original costumes.
From seeing how trends influence dressing up in movies to witnessing it while being out on Halloween night, it’s clear that social trends have a big impact on Halloween costumes. Each year, Polk and Lieneweg both see group costumes and animal costumes are the most popular. Lieneweg said, “[the costume] isn’t really an animal, it’s more like corsets and ears.” Porcella believes there would be more diversity in costumes if it weren’t for today’s trends, stating, “I feel like every year you see online everyone’s going as the same group costume or there’s a lot of people repeating costumes from what they saw last year…I feel like we could get more creative with [costumes].”
Over the years, society has turned Halloween costumes into a nightmare in itself. From trying to decide on a costume to gathering the confidence to walk into a party with a costume on, the whole process can be frightening. Despite that, if putting on a colorful wig and covering yourself in fake blood is how you want to dress up, then do it. At the end of day, whose opinion about yourself matters more than your own?
