Is Mean Girls Still Right About Halloween?

Graphic by Addison Pavone

Mean Girls’ Cady Heron said, “In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” 

For many in SU’s “girl world,” Halloween provides an opportunity to express their creativity—whether that includes revealing outfits or not. 

“Halloween is kind of like the one time where I feel like girls can really unapologetically express themselves—without maybe facing scrutiny,” freshman Lelle Peters said.

As Halloween approaches, students like Peters are crafting budget spreadsheets, Google Docs and Pinterest boards to plan costumes for each of the three nights of “Halloweekend.” 

Picking a perfect costume is a challenge. The perfect one strikes a balance between niche and recognizable, Peters said. The creativity comes into play when figuring out how to turn a concept into a cute outfit. 

“It makes you lean on creativity and just try to make a costume, like, kind of cunt,” Peters said. 

Peters had to get creative for the Scrooge costume she has planned for this year. Underneath the classic bulky bathrobe, she’s wearing a sheer dress with shorts. She’s also dressing up as Ferris Bueller, which she said will be a more “conservative” outfit. 

Though Peters sets her costumes apart through styling, some take it even further by making costumes by hand. Pippa Nilson, a junior, started working on last year’s peacock costume a month in advance, sewing on sequins and feathers to pieces she found on Depop. 

Nilson said she loved the process of creating the outfit as much as she loved the opportunity to get dressed up since there aren’t any other opportunities to get as decked out as you do on Halloween. 

Even though Nilson is motivated by creativity, she still feels the pull of revealing options.

“Sometimes I'll pick a Halloween costume and then I'll be talking to other people about theirs, and I'm like, ‘Shit, am I being too modest with what I'm wearing?’ But then also, at the end of the day, I've never changed my Halloween costume because of that,” Nilson said.

Like Nilson, freshman Siena Nitsky said Halloween is a creative outlet for her. Nitsky loves to dress up, and Halloween gives her motivation to sew. After narrowing down her costume ideas from six to three, she decided to make her own Ginger Spice costume. 

Looking sexy is an “afterthought,” Nitsky said. She is planning a more raunchy costume—a corseted knight in shining armor—to attend the Rocky Horror Picture Show to fit in with the show’s theme.

Corset-based costumes are the go-to for an easy, hot costume, Nitsky said. Friends often ask her for Halloween costume ideas from her extensive Pinterest board, and she gives them three categories to choose from: “cute, funny or hot.” Most choose hot, she said. 

That’s because for those looking for something easier, focusing on looking sexy simplifies things, Nitsky said. 

“There's more vulnerability in being funny because if you're not actually funny, then it's kind of a failure,” Nitsky said. “Being hot, you can kind of favor that over the costume. Your costume doesn't have to be good as long as you look good.”

As a freshman, Peters said she had the expectation coming in that Halloween costumes would be revealing. Once students move away from their parents, they don’t have to answer to anyone, inspiring them to dress more scandalously, she said.

Because, as Cady Heron said, Halloween is the only weekend of the year to get dressed up, girls sometimes feel like they should take advantage to the fullest extent by wearing the most revealing outfit possible, Nitsky said. 

Getting good pictures is another big motivator for dressing up. Even though she has a Friday morning class, she’s more motivated to go out on Thursday because of the opportunity to get more pictures, said Nitsky. 

Revealing costumes, Nilson said, are sometimes just for a picture’s sake.

“If people have a skimpy costume, maybe they have some sort of cover, and they'll take pictures without it and then add something else,” she said. “It's totally about the photos.”

Taking pictures immortalizes the hard work you put into a costume, Peters said. Nobody is out trick-or-treating to show off their costumes like in childhood. So, a good picture gives a costume meaning, she said.

Halloween is so special because it's only one weekend. But Peters said she wishes the judgment-free energy could extend past those three nights. 

“I definitely wish it was year-round because I feel like it lets girls express themselves however they want without judgment,” she said. “When girls want to make a costume cute and sexy, they want to do it for themselves. I'm not doing this to have anyone look at me. I just want to do this because I want to feel cute when I'm with my friends.”