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Community Corner

When Did Halloween Get So Trashy?

Why do so many girls look like they're headed to a haunted Playboy mansion?

When did Halloween become “How Trashy Can I Look Night?”

Maybe this has been going on for a long time and I just never noticed it.

Maybe it’s because my oldest daughter is just now getting old enough to wear a costume other than a fuzzy unicorn or a bumblebee, but we’re dressing up to go on hayrides and get some free candy. So could someone please tell me why most of the girls that I've seen this year look like they're on their way to film some creepy adult movie?  

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When did Snow White add fishnets to her royal attire? And why do the fairies have more than their sparkly wings out on display, if you know what I mean? When did Alice decide that stilettos are proper footwear for prancing around through Wonderland? Look around you this Halloween. There is a latex-wearing nurse in a garter belt! There is a Pocahontas in hot pants! It looks like everyone is headed to the haunted Playboy mansion!

Even worse, who ever decided that angels – ANGELS – are supposed to wear nothing more than some feather underwear and a cape? Is that the kind of angel you want guarding your kids’ bed at night? I don’t think so!

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I’m not sure how this little trend began, but I am sure that Halloween is not the most appropriate time to strut your stuff. How is it that in order to get a pack of M&Ms, our cute little Strawberry Shortcakes and mini football players have to wade through a sea of cave girls with nothing on but a pillowcase and a spray tan?

My kids (and yours) deserve to go out for an evening of PG fun without being forced into the Pay-Per-View adult channel.

While looking for costume ideas (before we settled on Star Wars) with my 8-, 7- and 4-year-old daughters, we came across the following outfits: a black and hot pink corset for a Barbie Diva, a mini skirted Little Red Riding Hood with a red bra on top, a VooDoo Vixen and a Hot Little Devil costume with a halter top and a skin tight skirt. These are marketed toward and sold to young girls!

I must tell you that I am completely disgusted by this. Maybe I’ve been living under a rock for a while, but now I've crawled out and I am appalled. Stuff like this is a child molester’s dream! Do people really let their daughters wear these things? Whose idea was this? Why do we want our daughters to look like full-grown – not to mention immodest – women?

What’s even more disturbing is that this isn’t just a problem with our teen girls (which is bad enough.) If these costumes are being made available to our little girls, what the heck are our high-school aged girls supposed to wear? I'm having a hard time believing that parents are condoning these things.

I don’t know about you but I would like for my little girls to stay little as long as they possibly can. I’m certainly not going to buy them a “Vamp in a Box” costume.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m all for personal freedom. Wear what you want, but for Heaven’s sake use good judgment for yourself and your girls. Is a harvest party or the trick or treat event at the mall really the right place to accidentally trip over your own stilettos and flash someone? We are in Northeast Ohio, not on the Vegas strip.

I realize that Halloween is a huge business. People spend millions and millions of dollars on costumes every year. Businesses are cashing in on the “sexification” of every single profession in the book, not to mention all of the Disney princesses!

I don’t know about you, but I have a problem with my daughters trick or treating next to a woman wearing nothing but a wig and a Rapunzel tube top. There’s a time and place to learn about things like that, but it’s not while you’re out in broad daylight. And it's definitely not while you’re asking your neighbor for a Snickers bar.

Everyone has their camera out and at the ready on Halloween. There is an astronomically high chance that a video of these girls fumbling around in ridiculous high heels is going straight onto YouTube and Facebook with their Halloween goodies out for all the world to see.

This is a holiday to have a little fun, to get a little spooked and to see how much candy you can gather up for free. It's not a contest to see who can tip the Skimpy-scales.

We are having a Harvest Party with our friends and neighbors. We’re going to carve pumpkins, build a fire, and eat too much sugar. We’re going to go trick or treating, and we are wearing costumes.

And I don't mind saying that the only thing we want to see bobbing at our party are the apples.

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