What is up with people being so weird about Halloween costumes? Fall is chilly and wet—not exactly the best weather for miniskirts and fishnets. Despite this, many students brave the cold as they step outside in their finest Halloween attire. Contrary to the grumblings of people too old to be concerned about the habits of college students, being a sexy mouse for Halloween is not the end of the world.

It was not until the 1970’s that people began being more risqué with their costumes. This is thanks to progress in women’s rights, sexual freedom and queer liberation that made people more comfortable showing skin. So, once again, we should give thanks to the women and queer people in our lives.

The early 2000’s brought about cheap, mass-produced costumes in pretty much any category you can imagine. That included characters like sexy schoolgirls, maids and even cultural figures.

As Cady Heron states in the 2004 Mean Girls, “Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it.”

Nowadays we have become a bit more conscious of things like cultural appropriation, so dressing as a sexy Native American would rightfully get you a judging side-glance.  But, in recent years, it seems like many people have left Cady’s sentiment in the past and now quite the opposite is true. While women continue to dress up as whatever they would like to, this holiday turned into an excuse to slut shame women. They have been doing it successfully and getting away with it for the most part.

What makes this even worse is that some of this shaming is coming from women. On social media, it has become popular accuse women of “dressing for the male gaze,” which insinuates that she is doing it for male validation and attention. Not only are these comments uncomfortably similar to the ‘I’m not like other girls’ rhetoric— a girl who sees herself as different from her peers by rejecting stereotypically female things— but they also perpetuate misogynistic ideals.

If you were like me, then you were around on TikTok for the re-branding of the word ‘bop.’ Similar vibes were also present during the peak of the ‘bop’ trend. Before becoming associated with music, ‘bop’ had its roots in AAVE, describing a woman who is promiscuous. When it was at its peak in popularity, it was common to open the comments only to see people calling women ‘bops’ no matter what they were doing. This eventually transferred over to Halloween season.

Even though the word is not popular anymore, the sentiment remains in the form of things like ‘basic shaming,’ which is shaming women for wearing anything basic and risqué, specifically during Halloween. This year, both in person and on TikTok people, many people have become obsessed with bothering people who wear the cheap, accessible corsets from Amazon.

While these corsets are not the best quality, they are an easy way to make any costume more interesting, and its popularity should not make people more judgmental about it. The hate on these accessories that are meant for one night of lighthearted fun makes me wonder what these disgruntled people expect. Do they want these women to spend countless hours and dollars on costumes just to appeal to some stranger? Despite all these haters, this Halloween season will be filled with funny, rather than sexy, costumes.

It might just be the people who I have talked to but, based on what I have heard from other University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) students’ Halloween plans, this season will be filled with funny girl costumes. A Hamilton trend created by TikToker ‘actuallyhamilt0n’ early this year blew up creating a space for women to dress up in their finest Hamilton attire and be a little weird. This paved the way for creators like ‘ASHBY,’ who became even more popular with her Lorax cosplays. More than a few women I have spoken to have mentioned their Lorax plans.  Some of you might have even seen several Lorax copycats on campus.

It is not hard to understand why people seem to love the idea of these more lighthearted costumes. Being called a slut is not fun; these silly costumes add another layer to Halloween enjoyment.

Some will still argue that these sexy costumes only exist to further objectify women, but a lot of women believe that dressing this way makes them feel empowered, so who are any of us to refute that. At the end of the day, it is all about giving women options. With those options, they can choose to dress as whoever they want to be.

This Halloween, I look forward to seeing every type of costume. Whether it be scary, sexy or silly, I encourage women to dress whatever makes them feel the most confident during this holiday.