Halloween is just around the corner, and it's time to pick out your costume. The COVID-19 pandemic made Halloween 2020 a mostly virtual affair, but depending on vaccination rates where you live, you might actually attend a costume party in person this year. If you decide to (safely) do so, what should you wear? There are so many creative options out there, from superheroes to political critiques to your favorite condiment. However, it's also important to be sensitive when you're trying to decide what to be for Halloween. To help you out, I've come up with a list of six offensive Halloween costumes to avoid. Seriously, just don't.
Even in recent years, numerous celebrities, political figures, and other prominent people have been embroiled in scandal because of racist or offensivecostumes they donned in the past. In March 2021, the University of Alabama placed three professors on paid leave after photos surfaced of them attending an on-campus party in 2014 while wearing racist costumes. In the photos, one of the professors was dressed as a Confederate soldier, while the other two posed with a whip and a noose. After the photos came to light, the university’s president denounced the professors’ actions, per The New York Times, and two of the professors issued public apologies for their costume choices.
The professors may have apologized once they were caught, but done respectfully, your Halloween costume shouldn’t be something you end up having to apologize for. Racism is not a costume, and neither are other cultures, tragic events, or systems of oppression. When you're picking out your Halloween costume for 2021, last-minute or otherwise, here are some things you should make sure to avoid.
Victims Of Oppression & Tragic Events
We all get it — it’s been a tragic year, and we have to find things to laugh about. However, you should avoid making light of oppression and tragedy when you’re picking out your Halloween costume. For example, please don’t dress up as a Holocaust victim. In August 2020, TikTok users dressed up as “Holocaust victims in heaven” as part of a troubling trend, per Insider, going so far as to don makeup imitating bruises and burns. Diane Saltzman, the director of survivor affairs at the US Holocaust Museum, told Insiderat the time that the trend “dishonors the memory of the victims, is offensive to survivors, and trivializes the history.” For similar reasons, you should also avoid dressing up as a mass shooting victim, an immigrant detained at the border, a victim of domestic violence, or a Black person who was killed by police.
For people who have been oppressed, attacked, or even killed for their race, gender, or religious beliefs, Halloween costumes like these commodify and mock their traumatic experiences. And for people who are the victims of tragedy, costumes making light of tragic events can be triggering, offensive, and decidedly unfunny. So as you’re thinking about what to be for Halloween, consider whether your potential costume “punches down” — that is, whether it mocks or makes light of a person or group that has historically been persecuted, marginalized, or victimized in some way. If it does, you should find a different costume.
Body-Shaming Costumes
This is a pretty broad category, but any costumes that objectify, body-shame, or mock people should be avoided. Making light of someone's weight by wearing a fat suit is the antithesis of body positivity, as is reducing someone to a sex object by wearing a caricatured, “sexy” costume of their appearance. You should also stay away from any Halloween getups that mock gender nonconforming or trans people, or reduce their experiences to a costume. If you really must wear some form of inflatable costume, try a T-rex instead of any kind of fat suit. A T-rex is never inappropriate.
There are so many fictional characters, political themes, and spooky concepts out there that would make great Halloween costumes. All you have to remember is this — it doesn't cost you too much effort to wear a creative, sensitive Halloween costume, and it's worth going the extra mile to avoid invoking trauma or stereotypes. After all, wouldn’t you rather be remembered for how clever your costume is, instead of how cringeworthy?