Halloween is a high holy holiday at my house. There’s something about planning a great costume, from the brainstorm of potentials to the final touches of makeup on Halloween night, that I love. It’s the one night a year we decide what we want to be and get to go be it. There’s no rule about whether or not that person is “good” or “bad” – we just get to live in our imagination for a bit.
Growing up, I hated the holiday. Despite the fact that my mom is an amazing seamstress, Halloween consisted of her buying the costume in a box at Grand Central. It had a plastic mask (I can still feel the snap of that awful elastic and hear the sound of my voice trying to escape it) and an outfit from what seemed to be paper that tied in the back. One year I was Alice in Wonderland even though I’ve never even seen the movie or read the story. And the one thing you could always count on was having to put a parka over the top of whatever you were wearing because it would definitely be too cold to trick or treat without one.
So this year when planning my costume I looked back through the year for a funny moment or movie I could capture (had a grand idea to go with hubby as Andrew Weiner and me as the Twitter bird) but couldn’t find something that really worked. Then my husband mentioned the Ragnar Relay we’re training for and that he wanted to be Ragnar (an epic Viking hero for whom the race is named). So I sought out something related (I’m a Mormon girl, can’t bypass a theme) and was disappointed. My options were pretty much Viking princess or Viking vixen (see left – and doesn’t she look a little cold there in that snow? Not sure the fur on the boots is going to cut it!).
I cringed. He gets to be a bad-ass hero, and I get to be a princess? Something isn’t right about that. Not that I don’t want to be pretty and sexy, but I want to be something more than pretty and sexy Nordic style. The same is true in life. My desire to be something amazing doesn’t mean I don’t want to look damn good while I’m doing it, it just means that looking damn good alone isn’t enough.
As for this Halloween, it turns out Ragnar had a pretty cool wife named Lathgertha – a warrior in her own right. I get to be a both bad-ass and a princess.
Do you have a favorite Halloween costume?
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Come back and post pictures!
Word. I think both men and women want to be attractive and desirable, but that is not all we want to be. And the fact that is given so much weight in the way women are valued (and especially in the way women value themselves) drives me crazy. Halloween is more of the same, just hyped up and with fishnets on. BTW, I loved this commentary on Halloween costumes.
Part of me cringes at how commercialized Halloween has become, and part of me recognizes that there is a lot of pent up domesticity in the American people that is unleashed by putting up foam headstones in the front yard.
When we were kids, my mom always made (or encouraged us to make) our costumes. But she loved the creative outlet. What we lacked in skill we made up for in enthusiasm. One year I wore a polka dot bathing suit with an exoskeleton made of plastic-straw-like Tinker Toys to the roller rink for Halloween. I think I said I was a Space Girl. I was nine. I struggle with giving my kids free reign…. and usually find a balance of creativity and cute. This year I have a panda, an 80’s Aerobics Instructor, and and Orchestra Fairy (her wand is an old violin bow…..)
We’ve been invited to an 80’s party so I’m going all 16 Candles myself. Can’t wait to put my electric blue bridesmaid’s dress (complete with the classic dyed-silk pumps) together with the big hair on Saturday night!!!
Claire, I’m with you and part of me cringes at the commercialization of Halloween. It’s way over the top. According to some of my neighbors, Halloween is a satanic holiday. I wonder, do Satan worshippers complain about the commercialization of Halloween as well? “Okay kids, you can dress up and go get some candy, but, don’t forget the true meaning of Halloween!”
Search youtube.com for “Oscar the grouch halloween costume”
Or this Nikon camera costume:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/camera-halloween-costume_n_1032973.html
Of course, either one of those would take more prep time that all the halloween costumes I’ve ever worn in my entire life combined.