In Which We See Our Future In Halloween Costumes

In Costume

by ELEANOR MORROW

Seeing someone dressed up as someone else is never comforting. Only Matt Lauer is improved by such a transformation, and this because otherwise he's going bald. JFK found his kids' costumes entertaining. We find them somewhat morbid and ironic. For a disguise to work, context is everything.

katie couric & matt lauerHalloween more often exposes societal ills without suggesting a more nurturing, religous path. Ms. Glock suggests Halloween is degrading to women:

I walked past the displays for the sexy devil and the sexy bunny and the sexy leopard — which, confounding logic, was already sold out — before happening upon the wall of full adult costumes. The first was Tavern Lady, an off-the-shoulder dress and faux-leather vest. It was followed by French Maid (ruffled mini-dress with matching headpiece), Cheerleader (pleated micro-mini and fitted vest) and Wonder Woman, which had not only a nearly invisible skirt but also red vinyl boot covers that reached to the thigh.

 At $49.99, Wonder Woman was among the priciest costumes, along with the Geisha — both $20 more than Stewardess, which consisted only of a polyester wrap dress with a plunging neckline.

Heidi Klum usually dresses up as something objectionable. Looking at her on Halloween is the same way I feel about viewing Ross Perot's real face. For feminist ex-Muslim Irshad Manji, Halloween is simply the site of her entry into open society.

hubert humphrey on halloween 1964Let's face it though, Matthew Weiner is a secret racist and blackface of course is among the most famous of the degrading costumes. I mean, who would dress their child in such a fashion? It's a wonder he didn't become a Somali pirate.

ted kennedy in his pirate costume, 1934To dress oneself in an objectionable fashion is common even in the highest levels of our government. As an AP dispatch reported in 2007,

A Homeland Security Department employee has been placed on leave for wearing a Halloween costume that drew complaints from other workers as being racially insensitive, even as it won ''most original'' honors from managers at an agency party. An inquiry is under way to determine proper sanctions in the incident, said Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary. The unidentified employee's costume of dreadlocks, dark makeup and prison stripes was deemed by Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, and two other managers to be the most original at the party.

This year I'm not going out on Halloween.

Eleanor Morrow is the senior contributor to This Recording. She is a writer living in New York. She last wrote in these pages about District 9. She tumbls here.

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