Happy Halloween! The LA Times has decided to celebrate the unholiest of holidays with a convoluted op-ed from conservative ideologue Charlotte Allen using Halloween as an excuse to bash both sluts and slutwalks. Because, you know, if you dress like a slut – whether to protest rape or to go to a Halloween party – it’s like you’re begging to be raped. Bad feminists! Bad Halloween revelers dressed as sexy nurses!
Here are a few of the more coherent passages from the piece:
[T]he SlutWalk feminists are in denial of a reality that is perfectly obvious to both the women who favor “sexy” for Halloween parties and (although perhaps not consciously) the SlutWalkers themselves. The reality is that men’s sexual responses are highly susceptible to visual stimuli, and women, who are also sexual beings, like to generate those stimuli by displaying as much of their attractive selves as social mores or their own personal moral codes permit. … It’s no wonder that SlutWalks have quickly outstripped (as it were) Take Back the Night as anti-rape protest. Women get another chance besides Halloween to dress up like prostitutes!
Just watch out, ladies, because dressing sexy is like waving a red flag in front of a bull, with your wallet hanging out!
[T]he vast majority of rape victims are under age 30 — that is, when women are at their peak of desirability. …
[T]he fact that rapists tend to target young women rather than grandmotherly types suggests that in the real rape culture (in contrast to the imaginary rape culture of some feminist ideology), the faux-hos of Halloween and their SlutWalker counterparts marching in their underwear — like a man walking at night with a bulging wallet — should be careful about where they flash their treasure.
So thank you, Charlotte Allen, for once again showing just why the Slutwalks are necessary in the first place.
Jill at Feministe has an excellent response to Allen’s nonsense, which points out that while, yes, younger women are more likely to be victims of rape,
Younger people are also the most likely group to be the victims of aggravated, non-sexual assault. … In fact, younger people are victimized by violent crime more often than older folks as a general rule. A person between the ages of 12 and 24 is six times more likely to be the victim of a robbery than a person over the age of 50; about half of people who report being the victims of aggravated assault are under the age of 25. Men are much more likely than women to be the victims of violent crime. In every age group, black people are the most likely to be the victims of violent crime.
So yes, it is true that younger women are more likely to be targeted for sexual assault than older women. But it’s not because of The Sexy — unless hormones and hard-ons are what are causing criminals to choose their (mostly male) targets for robbery and assault also.
So, really, the only really safe costuming strategy for young people on Halloween, regardless of gender, is to dress up like an old white lady. Might I suggest Dame Judi Dench?
It’s such misandry to suggest that men can’t control themselves if they see the wrong clothes. What are they, animals?
I walked around campus all day today as Wonder Woman, in a corset, binkini bottoms, and what my roommates referred to as “stripper heels.” With cat-eye eyeliner and glittery eyeshadow and all. Somehow I was neither sexually assaulted nor raped. I guess there must not be any men on my campus, because obviously they would have been unable to avoid their sexual urges.
Im not sure of what costumes Charlotte is referring to, can we see some pics of these so-called unacceptable costumes?
Hmm… they seem concerned here… e.e
I read this via Jezebel earlier. Allen uses NWO’s tired-ass “flaunting wealth in a bad neighborhood” analogy. That analogy misses the point so much it’s not funny.
The “flash your treasure” bit made me want to hurl.
There was a serial rapist in my area who targeted elderly women and broke into their houses. So clearly to avoid rape we should not dress conservatively and stay out of the kitchen.
Don’t you mean Sexy Judi Dench, David?
(Not that she’s not sexy already, but you know what I mean.)
Nice to know there’s still work for misogynist rape-apologist assholes out there. Oh wait, it’s not. Why is what amounts to a really nasty urban legend being printed in a newspaper? Couldnt they scare-monger about razor blades in candy or the dangers of mixing Mentos and Coke?
FUCKING A.
“I walked around campus all day today as Wonder Woman, in a corset, binkini bottoms, and what my roommates referred to as “stripper heels.” With cat-eye eyeliner and glittery eyeshadow and all.”
So then, you were not dressed up as Wonder Woman…
Am I right?? 😉
Oh, and theyre called stripper shoes* btw
“Couldnt they scare-monger about razor blades in candy or the dangers of mixing Mentos and Coke?”
Why be accepting of any type of scare-mongering??
aym, where are you going with this?
Yeah, because Wonder Woman doesn’t wear a corset and bikini bottoms, and, in many incarnations of her outfit, heels…
…I have no clue what you’re getting at.
I’m so fucking lazy (and, okay, limmited time in which to launder/repair what I’d intended to wear) that my costume consists of hash marks in marker on my hands and arms. I don’t have the right outfit or the right hair color (or length), but dammit, I am going to the least possible effort here! Recognize!
The source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68431029@N06/6300064155/
Ooh! Costume sharing! This year I was lazy and went as Daria Morgendorfer. I usually pick costumes on the non-sexy side, as was my intention here, but Daria’s outfit is less dumpy looking on me than it is on her. So yeah. Sexy Daria. :/
I will post costume pictures whenever my roommates are actually awake and able to take pictures. I’m still stuck in the corset because I can’t take it off without assistance.
Daria is awesome. And so are hash marks.
Daria! How I adore her. The least they can do if they’re bringing back Beavis and Butthead is bring her back to counterbalance it.
But . . . Dame Judy is totally hot! So no, that won’t work.
When I was in 5th grade, one kid dressed up as a mailbox, with a big cardboard carton over her head, little eye-holes in the door, and all you could see was her feet. That’s more like what Hush-Hush Not-So-Sweet Charlotte would approve of.
I was Batman and Rowdy was Catboy!
I know, theme couple costumes, I’m a little disgusted myself.
@Holly: If I ever have a kid I am totally theme-costuming with the baby and spouse. I’ve always wanted to dress up as the Joker with a baby Robin. My sense of humor’s kind of twisted.
Holly: That’s actually pretty awesome. But I kinda like couples costumes. I guess MrB and I are kinda doing that – in the sense that we’re both butt-lazy SF fans. I have my hash marks, he has his towel. In case the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall shows up at the Samhain feast, he will know where his towel and what to do with it!
The husband and I were Mrs & Mrs. Roper from “Three’s Company.” Roughly three billion light years away from sexy!
MY costume today consisted of a black swooopy outfit I have owned for a year or two (black! swoopy! uneven cut! shows tattoos), and this great witch’s hat (with fluff around the brim) that I bought when we were back at the Stewart/Colbert rally last year–and a pumpkin basket full of candy.
My students and colleagues loved it.
WITCH! And I did not turn anybody into a newt.
I considered Sexy Virgin Mary, being pregnant and all, but ended up just staying in on Saturday. It’s too bad – I could have dressed the hounds up as camels or something.
KathleenB, that’s a great idea!
Aym, of course they shouldn’t scaremonger about those things either. That was, you know, sort of my point.
I just googled “sexy virgin mary costume” and was pleasantly surprised to not find any!