“In girl world, Halloween is the one night of the year where a girl can dress like a total slut, and no other girls can say anything about it.”

This famous quote from the movie “Mean Girls” encapsulates it all. As a college woman dressing up for Halloween, here’s the story, we can’t win. Practically every costume can go one of two ways now, sexy or funny. But whichever one you choose, you’re going to get judged for it. 

“(A sexy costume) doesn’t cover very much, it’s very form fitting,” said Korbyn Malate, a first-year student at Oregon State University. “You really only see women in them.” 

“I just don’t think women just can’t do anything right, at all,” said Kenzie Blixt, a second-year student at OSU. “If you dress funny people will say she’s a ‘pick me,’ if you dress slutty people will say ‘oh, she’s like a whore’.”  

People may dress as a sexy version of a Halloween costume for several reasons, but there’s no denying that people will voice their opinions on it. Women have been judged on what they wear for centuries, and Halloween is no exception. 

You get stares if you dress sexy. People whisper and point at you. But, the story is the same with a funny costume. No matter what, judgment is present. There is literally no way around it.

So even though you may get judged for your sexy, or incredibly funny costume, here’s another thing, your girlfriends will almost always hype you up. 

“I think they’re fun,” said Willow Cooper, a second-year student at OSU. “It’s a fun activity with your girls.” 

So regardless of the judgment that women inevitably get, being around friends affects our confidence and the way we express ourselves.

 But, we can also get this confidence just from being by ourselves. Remember; you go girl! 

As we get older, women are showing more and more, they just really don’t care about what people have to say, specifically what men have to say. They just want to be themselves. 

“I feel like there’s also a lot of girls who are like ‘yes, this is the one day where I can just fucking go all out, and show off the body that I’m proud of and that I love,’ and I think that’s also a great thing,” Blixt said.

There’s no denying that costume culture has evolved over the years, and that we’ve evolved with it. 

 “I’m glad that women being able to express themselves in a way that makes them comfortable has been more normalized in our society,” Blixt said.