A trip to a costume store can be a maddening and harrowing experience. Halloween has evolved, from being a celebration for children in which they receive free candy and get to stay up late, to an often unseemly celebration of skin and debauchery. Though the day gives many the excuses to wear masks and pretend to be someone else, it also opens the door to introspection on our culture of image-based judgments.
The university campus is an ideal place to view the evidence of the United States as an image-driven society that places a great deal of value on how a person looks. Too much emphasis has been put on how a person should look, and this applies intrinsically more to women.
The subculture-the current that flows beneath the primary cultures on college campuses-is one that seems to promote slutty college women. Shocked? There is no basis for shock, for the statement is evidenced by the retail outlets where we shop and by their profits. Sex sells, and if a company has trouble selling sex, it can sell the next best thing: promiscuity.
Instead of giving in to this subculture of slutty college women, it is advisable to look deeper into the issue at hand. College women may often feel that the advertisements and fashion-industry experts know what is in vogue for a season, but if one looks past the ads and the critics, it is easy to see that what is in vogue does not necessarily imply what is in good taste.
It is a sad community to live in when a woman who chooses not to wear makeup has that choice noted, but we have become so accustomed to women “putting on their faces” every day that if that effort is not taken, one may think the woman a “hippie” or an unkempt slacker. Such is the power of the fashion and makeup industry that we have forced women into believing that without covering up imperfections, beauty is unattainable.
We find that true beauty is attainable, and it is not attained by covering up imperfections, but by embracing them. Wearing clothing that showcases the body in promiscuous-read: slutty-fashions is not showing off the body, but is instead, showcasing of a lack of self-confidence.
Not to veer into Puritanical teachings, or revert back to the Victorian era where showing a little ankle was tantamount to being called a whore, it is important to understand that this is merely a call to attention and change against imprudence. When the closet is opened in the morning, instead of grabbing the first clean shirt available, think about what is being put on the body and, more importantly, why.
As college students, we feel the need to constantly push the envelope in our fashion, discipline and lifestyle choices, but pushing the envelope does not have to involve covering our imperfections with makeup and exposing our body in tasteless ways. Pushing the envelope is progress, but let us hope that the progress we make is for the benefit of gender equality and respect for our bodies.
