Risque Halloween costumes
A short white skirt with a red outline. Thigh-high stockings and sharp red heels. A low cut, white shirt with a red cross plastered across the front of it. This may not be what's commonly found in hospitals, but it's often the closest option to it that women have when it comes to a Halloween costume.
While female costume choices are often limited to sexy pirates and tight cat suites, men's costumes tend to gravitate more towards humor.
"The costume choices aren't balanced at all. Women's tend to be very revealing in general," Ben Goike, a Milford freshman, said.
"My first thought is usually that 'it's really cold out, how can you do that?'"Aaron Curdts, a freshman from Pinckey, admits that, as a male, he doesn't think much about it but he has noticed the difference on the men and women's side of the store when he enters a costume shop.
"If you're a grown man and buying a costume, you're not going to think of much of it. We're guys, so we're automatically stupid. We'll think something is simple and think, let's go with that to get a laugh," he said.
"For women, while as a guy I wouldn't really know, it seems like their choices are between dressing like total sluts or geeks or somewhere in between.
"Bonnie Greene, a junior from Maniatee, searched online for her Belle from Beauty in the Beast costume so she could go "full out instead of just [dressing like] a sexy cop."
She did, however, manage to find her Queen of Hearts costume in a store, and also handmade her Despicable Me minion and Wonder Woman costumes herself.
When Google searching "women Halloween costume", it takes until the ninth photo to display any not extremely revealing outfit choice for females.
After that, it takes another eight photos. Two of the 17 photos show revealing women's costumes verses the common men's humorous costumes, proving that the imbalance hasn't gone entirely unnoticed.
Curdts believes the reason behind the lack of options lies in the simplicity that Halloween themes tend to fall under: sex, violence, and horror.
"It depends on the person you are. You can go really creative and Cosplay things. I've been to ComicCon and they go all out," Curdts said. "But if you do it simple, it could work. You don't have to go all out and do some sort of extreme."
He also voiced his concern for girls' ability to stay warm in the often thin and flimsy outfits, but believes it's ultimately the girl's decision that should be based off her own comfort level.
"If you want to, go ahead, but if you don't want to, no one is going to crucify you for not showing skin," he said. "Guys aren't going to say you don't like Halloween or something."
