Slut Speaks Out: My Culture is Not a Costume


Image Credit: Natalie Arenzon

Image Credit: Natalie Arenzon

Dear Columbia community,

This last weekend of October, or “Halloweekend” honestly broke my heart with its displays of cultural appropriation.

Anyone can dress as a slut on Halloween, but it takes genuine courage in the face of adversity to be a slut every day. Anybody can don fishnets, revealing clothing, and intense amounts of makeup, but these pervasive “slutty” Halloween costumes ignore the depth of our culture. They ignore the things deeper than our skin, like high levels of thirst and lower-than-average standards.

Does your twelve dollar “Slutty Nurse” costume from Party City include the slow-but-sure hardening of one’s heart against the weight of slut-shaming and gendered expectations to look for true love? Do the kitty whiskers you drew on yourself and call a costume provide you with the loose morality and low self-esteem required to make the life decisions that I do every day? No, they don’t.

Next year, consider ALL the people you might be disrespecting when you choose your costume.   


 

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