Daily Dose of Common Sense

Is your child dressing up as a witch this year? What about a gypsy? Or, perhaps as Darth Maul from Star Wars? Well, some schools and communities might take issue with these costumes. Around the country, there is a growing movement to eliminate “scary” or “inappropriate” costumes.

Guns, daggers and other toy weapons have long been excised from costumes at many school celebrations on Halloween. But in some classrooms across the country, the interpretation of what is too scary–or offensive, gross or saddening–is now also leading to an abundance of caution and some prohibitions.

First, you have to wonder what the motivation is here. Halloween began as a Celtic tradition where, “their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm.” So, traditional costumes began as monsters, vampires, witches, devils, or skeletons. Does the desire to eliminate any “scary” costume come from a Christian religious contingent, whereby some devoutly religious believe that Halloween is a satanic holiday?

Second, can’t we just let kids wear what they want?

Restricting toy weapons makes some sense, as it is a safety issue. However, who is responsible for determining which costumes are too scary, offensive, gross, or sad? When someone starts making those kinds of judgements, next thing you know the only costume allowed will be a fruit or vegetable. “Ohhhh, that turnip is so scary!” Will a beet be acceptable, or does the red color make it offensive?

(Is this just a ploy by the Veggie Tale people, whose “mission is to enhance the spiritual and moral fabric of society through creative media.” Back off, religious broccoli!)

Parents and some educators said that restrictions like those at Riverside Drive often stemmed from a desire to protect smaller children from freakishly scary costumes, to maintain classroom order (spray-on hair color is often banned, for instance, because children tend to spray it all day long) and to keep from demeaning groups through costumes that play on stereotypes.

Parents should be able to use discretion when it comes to their child’s costume. Do I believe Freddy Krueger is an appropriate costume for a little kid? No. But, I wouldn’t call the Halloween police on the kid, either.

How is that sexy costumes for girls are becoming more prevalent and “scary” costumes are getting a bum rap?

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pm and is filed under WTF?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.