Don’t let ‘Mean Girls’ tell you what to wear

As Mean Girls (2004) decrees, “Halloween is the one night a year where a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” 

But is that even true anymore? 

With the rise of silly costume trends and the general impracticality of skimpy clothing in Nova Scotia Octobers, sexy costumes might be out this Halloween. 

Expectation versus reality

Like Cady from Mean Girls, Halloween was always my favourite holiday. 

As a kid, I’d pick my favourite character of the month and try to make an elaborate costume out of toilet paper rolls or clothes from Value Village. Then, because this is Canada, I’d slap a massive coat on top of the whole outfit.

But the significance of Halloween changed as I got older. 

In my first year of university, I thought that if I could create the perfect costume, it would somehow change my life. The outfit had to be flawless — interesting, not overdone and — most importantly — sexy. 

I had to put my best foot forward on the most important night of the year.

What did I expect? That I’d meet my future life partner at a house party dressed as the chef from Ratatouille (2007)? 

Halloween can be the best night of the year, but sometimes you just end up shivering by the side of the road waiting for your Uber, finally understanding why your mom insisted on the puffer jacket when you were a kid.

Three university Halloweekends later, and I still haven’t been swept off my feet. The sexy costume just hasn’t been worth it.

Down with the sexy costume!

On Oct. 9, the Banana Bar Crawl came to Halifax, and it’s happening again in November. 

Like an average bar crawl, you buy tickets and bounce between a variety of Halifax bars, completing games and challenges along the way. But in a fun twist, all participants are encouraged to dress as bananas. Not sexy bananas, just bananas. 

Some corners of the internet are also starting to prioritize funny over sexy.

TikToker Ashby Florence is also breaking ground by posting bits dressed as the Lorax, Lord Farquaad and Alexander Hamilton. She’s a beautiful girl who purposefully makes herself un-sexy in these costumes, and even wears them to interview on red carpets. She’s hilarious — and killing it.

Her 2.4 million TikTok followers agree.

As a young woman, it’s exciting to see other women — and the culture more broadly — embrace a goofiness we rarely get to explore. 

It’s fun to dress up in something ridiculous rather than constantly trying to be a put-together ideal.

Some may consider these new costume trends as just another way to brand yourself as cool, but so what? No matter what you do, you will always be performing in some way. Might as well not be cold.

So, down with the sexy costume! I refuse to shiver in lingerie for another year.

The future of sexiness: will we lose it completely?

Don’t panic. If you choose to go in a funnier direction this Halloween, that doesn’t mean you relinquish your sexiness forever. 

While Mean Girls is clear that Halloween is the only night for unbridled sexiness, it’s not 2004 anymore. The idea that you’ll be slut-shamed if you don’t have an excuse to dress sexy is no longer the norm, and should never have been in the first place.

You don’t need Halloween as an excuse. Try out a corset in your 9 a.m. lecture. Grabbing Tim’s from the Student Union Building is always more fun in a mini skirt. 

Halloween is the one night a year when you can get away with dressing like Katy Perry returning from her 15 minutes in space. But being sexy? That’s for every day.