Day of the "sexy" dead?

Halloween. It apparently started as a Celtic Festival centered around the harvest, and something to do with scaring away spirits...thus the scary costumes. Interesting. But are there limits?


Well, yesterday, Rox and I went to look for Halloween costumes at a local Halloween shop that opens its doors the first week of October and becomes a vacant eyesore for the 11 months following. (A former Eckerd Drugs) Now, let me preface this by saying I am an open minded person. However, there is a distinct difference to being open minded, and leaving no reason to be open minded.

If I had entered this store as a single man, I probably would not have noticed much outside of the male costume section of this store. But, I am married and a father, and was with my wife and children looking for costumes, I had no choice but to venture into other sections. What I found was appalling.

Lets start with the children's costumes. Movies such as Scream, Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare obviously lend themselves to the marketing of costumes. But, if you must be 17 years old to legally view these movies, then how is it that we allow 12-16 year olds the choice of using one of these costumes for Halloween. That's right, Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers costumes were available for "Teens" and in teen sizes. In all fairness, they also offered Star Wars, Batman and Police Officer costumes. But really, isn't it bad enough that our kids get exposed to cartoon network, why horror films at such a young age? I can see the leftists saying "It should be up to the parent." The problem is, that we do leave it up to the parent, and obviously there is a market for this, so parents are letting these costumes be bought. When I was a young teen still dressing up for Halloween, I was a football player one year, and the scariest I got was when I dressed up as "Teen wolf."

But that is the least of it. I saw a father, allowing his teen daughter to try on a "sexy" beer maid costume. You could see the discomfort in his face as she tried it on in the dressing room, but that didn't stop him from giving her "her way." He went ahead and purchased it. But did she really have a choice. As Rox and I searched for her costume, we found that she really didn't. Of all the costumes that were available for adults, 2, that's right: two, were conservative enough in coverage and friendly factor that my own wife would have felt comfortable adorning. However, there were over 50 costumes which were prefixed with the word "sexy". Sexy witch, sexy nurse, sexy Dorothy, sexy french maid, sexy beer maid, did I mention Dorthy? But low and behold, not a single wholesome Dorothy was available. Is Judy Garland rolling over in her grave...probably not, but you get the point. I'm not the only one who feels this way. Check this article.

What is our country coming too? I know this holiday is secular in nature, and pagan in its roots, but would the Celtic harvesters even appreciate where this holiday has gone in this country. It was supposed to be a festival which tried to head off evil spirits for the sake of the harvest. Now it has become about how much leg and bust you can show without getting arrested. When I have grandchildren, will their choice of costume be Stripper Dorothy or Porno Cop? Stop the madness.