Halloween

So, I am using the title of this blog, "Halloween", to both tap into my friends' interests and hopefully dress in costume what I am about to say.

Halloween - time to check I am spelling that right - is an American thing that Americans do and because they do it, and simultaneously (though not consequently) made movies, that Halloween thing came out in the movies and then we (the non-Americans) would watch those movies, TV shows, and learn about Halloween and then at one point someone of us (by "us" I mean the non-Americans and by someone I mean an American spy sent to spread her Americanism throughout the world in white-man's-burden style) suggested that we should do that too.

Subsequently, I have spent the past week dressing up in multiple ghoulish, skimpy, scary, nice, painted and ignorant forms, as you do.

At this point,  an anecdote is necessary and provided for your entertainment.

Think costumes and Bridget Jones' Diary

This is Bridget 

 She dressed as a bunny.

This is her dressed as a bunny.

 And old men touched her bum... oops, I mean tail.

Well, I was stupid enough to believe that this is movie life and things that happen in movies do not happen in real life.

Needless to say - or perhaps it is necessary to say this -  this belief was wrong.

You can tell who I am by the ears.

 You know the bum/ bunny tail thing? It happens in real life. 3 Halloweens ago, I learnt about this shit, but shared, part of real and movie life.

Let me remind you what I said before this anecdote:

"Subsequently, I have spent the past week dressing up in multiple ghoulish, skimpy, scary, nice, painted and ignorant forms, as you do", desperately trying not to dress sexily.

So I went as the joker ... when the joker was dressed as a nurse.  I can't tell you that my logic wasn't flawed, but I can tell you that it is nice to hide behind the use of double negatives. And I can also say the only dress that I found that kind of looked like a nurse was more of a shirt on poor ol' 5 foot 8 little ol' me.

You can tell this is me from the might-as-well-be-bunny-ears-for-all-I've-learnt

And this brings me to what I really want to talk about: the way that people change when you dress in costume. By my experience, most people mention your costume and then you talk about it a little.

And some people, by some people I mean some boys, use it as an excuse to tell you to take it off, or to touch your bum. 

We can all see that this is a mean thing to say/ do. The reasons for why it is mean may be debated: it pisses me off for example that such a thing would never be said to a boy if he also accidentally dressed a little too sexy. That might be a bit too gender focused (or, brace yourselves, feminist!) for some. But, regardless of why we think it is mean, being told to take one's clothes off can nonetheless be universally recognised as a mean, not-very-nice-thing to say.

And, questionably, was it said because I was in costume or was it said because I am a girl and that is just one of those things that girls are meant to put up with in this grand old society that you will bring your daughter up in?

Do you see this from my point of view?

I can only thank my lucky stars that I have such amazing and good people in my life so I don't need to worry about the shit-real-life thing too much. Indeed these people are my lucky stars. You know who you all are.