Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2014

The Halloween Trap: Women, Halloween, and the Image Police

by Jessie Feigert and Laura Sweat Femininity and sexuality are fundamentally policed in our society, and there’s no time of year when this is more obvious than on Halloween. Women experience Halloween as a day of concentrated misogyny, representing the opportunity for men to sexualize us, and then bash and ridicule us for this very sexualization. Realizing that this misogyny manifests itself in a multitude of ways for women, we wanted to open up a dialogue of our personal experiences which recognize the no-win situation women are placed in on this holiday. Both of us experienced a response to our images being policed; and the following is a conversation about it. Jessie : I love Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday- candy, costumes, and Monster Mash?? Yes, please! Halloween is symbolic for people; it’s the one day of the year you get to become someone else with little to no repercussions. For one day- if you choose- you can strip yourself of labels imposed both internally and