Althouse: Halloween is — or should be — a gay pride parade for straight people.

October 31, 2009

Halloween is — or should be — a gay pride parade for straight people.

Or something.

18 comments:

Skyler said...: Some people have one track minds.; 10/31/09, 7:35 PM
blake said...: Indeed. What could be more important than flaunting your sexuality?; 10/31/09, 7:36 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I was just thinking about how Halloween has changed so much since I was a kid. Now it's single people getting wasted and dressing outlandishly.

Savage explains it pretty well.; 10/31/09, 7:39 PM
former law student said...: Gays claim the honor of changing a holiday for children to one for adults as well.

I wonder when people here first went to a Halloween party in costume, over 21 or so? For me it was the late 70s.; 10/31/09, 7:51 PM
former law student said...: Some of the comments over there indicate that women should never dress sexy, lest all women be considered prey.

Even if that were true, Halloween should be a "safe space" to dress like a slut, because it's always been a time to pretend to be something you're not.; 10/31/09, 7:53 PM
MadisonMan said...: If older people were having Halloween parties when I was little -- in the 60s -- I was oblivious to it. Why would any kid know what 20-somethings were doing?; 10/31/09, 7:53 PM
Alex said...: Ann made this post to bait Titus.; 10/31/09, 8:28 PM
David said...: "I wouldn't eat you 'cause you're so tough."

--The Flying Purple People Eater; 10/31/09, 8:33 PM
dick said...: In the gay bars in Baltimore back in the 1960's Halloween was a huge holiday. The whole of downtown Baltimore was turned into a gay celebration as well as a celebration on the Baltimore Block. Party time everywhere. Lots of good times there then.

Later in the 1960's when I lived in Annapolis it was much the same. Again it was a big party time at the port of Annapolis. The straights got involved in that as well and we all partied together.; 10/31/09, 9:02 PM
Unknown said...: One year, we actually went out to a party on Halloween (it's more fun to stay home and watch the kids we later decided) and my wife, the nurse, got to do her dream outfit - she wore black sheer pantyhose and a camo shirt and I wore a mesh T-shirt and camo pants - we were the Upper GI and the Lower GI.; 10/31/09, 9:16 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: That's hard to stomach.; 10/31/09, 10:01 PM
Tibore said...: "Halloween is — or should be — a gay pride parade for straight people."

LMAO! I never thought of it that way before! That's freakin' hilarious.

Now, ignoring the whole "uptight sexuality" rant (that writer sounds like he's got a corncob farther up his own *** than the laughably labled "conservative student" he strawmans), he does have a point: Halloween now is about being someone different and way more sexually provocative. Which sort of brings into question what he was implying about Gay Pride Parades (what, the marchers are being someone else for the sake of the march?)... but that's a whole other topic. Anyway, the emphasis is no longer on kids playing in costumes; it's now on adults playing in them. And by "playing", I mean "flirting", "flaunting", and "cavorting". While we're at it, by "costumes", I mean mostly flaunty, flirty, or slutty variations of what would've passed as a kids getup; a 7 year old wearing a "cop" outfit would be wearing a pint sized reflection of what an actual cop would look like, but a grown-up doing the same would look more like a theme stripper at a bachelor party (this I actually saw earlier at Wal-Mart. Wow. It was quite, quite impressive. As an aside, Wal-Mart in a college town at midnight on Halloween is an experience, lemme tell you...). A cute fairy princess dress for a child would be much more abbreviated for an adult, and "cute" would not be the first adjective that would come to mind. And let's not even start in on doctors and nurses outfits (*blush*)).

Funny thing is, the purpose of the cavorting may have much more of an adult focus now, but ultimately it still has the same sort of objective. Children used to go wild in order to get the coveted, restricted, and (in the past) not constantly available candy. But for adults, it's no longer about hard to obtain edible sweets as it is "candy" of another variety, sometimes equally hard to get, but "satisfying" in a whole other manner.

Oddly on topic: Emily Zanotti, in her "American Princess" blog post asked "What Occupation Will Paris Hilton Turn Slutty for Halloween? The idea of adult cavorting in costumes is so well entrenched, even the "Look-at-Me" trend celebs are doing it. It doesn't get any more lodged in society's collective consciousness than it does when it becomes a celebrity fetish for photo-ops.

Anyway, yeah, there's a legitimate point there. Halloween now bears little resemblance to the old-time event that was so kid centric in the recent past (and certainly is nearly unrecognizable to the historical practitioners of Samhain back in time). It's turned into a show-off cavort-fest with barely disguised suggestive themes, and has managed to add an element of exhiliration in doing so. It's avoided becoming stale and stolid, like Christmas and Valentine's has for many, and in the process has retained its sense of fun. Given more time, it might become the majority of the adult population's "most favorite holiday", and it would be all due to the fact that it found a way to be playfully adult by becoming so exhibitionist. Showing off can be fun, but doing so in a way that causes others to blush/drool/devolve into quivering jello is even more so.; 10/31/09, 11:55 PM
TMink said...: "The whole of downtown Baltimore was turned into a gay celebration"

No, really, it did not.

Trey; 10/31/09, 11:57 PM
Penny said...: From the article:

"Conservative student: "Straight people don't flaunt our sexuality like that. We don't have straight 'pride' parades."

Me: "You should."

And this kind of reasoning is precisely why we should leave "lowest common denominator" in some fifth grade classroom.; 11/1/09, 1:03 AM
Penny said...: Hell, it's Halloween!

Have we yet not learned to put our best face forward?; 11/1/09, 1:12 AM
rhhardin said...: The usual observation is that gay pride parades are Halloween.; 11/1/09, 6:29 AM
Leland said...: But my wife is a sexy nurse 365 days a year.; 11/1/09, 7:32 AM
kentuckyliz said...: edutcher--upper/lower GI--very funny!

Re Savage
You'd think he'd think everyday life is a straight pride parade.

Actually, a traditional wedding is a Straight Pride Parade. So are baptisms, bris, and infant dedications.

Damned breeders!

^ Is that epithet covered under the new hate crime law?; 11/1/09, 10:24 AM