Halloween is a holiday during which we are encouraged to let go of social conventions, masquerade, and have fun. At the same time, an uncritical approach to choosing a costume can lead to intensely inequitable situations, as was clear from last year’s contentious blackface incident during which five students at the University of Toronto dressed up as the Jamaican bobsled team from the 1993 film Cool Runnings. Following this incident, several responses from the student community alleged that because the individuals involved did not intend to offend anyone and did not realize that their costumes had highly racist implications, condemning these costumes was simply a misled and irrelevant attempt to be “politically correct.” How can “political correctness,” a term often associated with qualities of being uptight and unable to have fun, fit in with the uninhibited raucousness of Halloween? Choosing an equitable Halloween costume is not really about political correctness at all, but about challenging ourselves to see how broad systems of oppression operate and sustain themselves in seemingly innocuous ways.
It is important to think about why one’s chosen costume is funny or edgy. What does it represent? Does the costume have any kind of historical or cultural implications one might not immediately be aware of? While some costumes may seem humorous or harmless at first glance, they can in fact be associated with images and histories of oppression that become perpetuated and are trivialized when they are worn as a Halloween costume. Anisha Thomas, president of the Equity Studies Student Union, highlights the fact that “costumes of Pocahontas and the like seriously trivialize colonial history and further erase the importance of aboriginal culture by replacing an entire entity with a racist caricature of itself.” Similarly, costumes that involve blackface, any manifestation of sexism, or “fatsuits” have the potential to evoke histories of subjugation that are still very real in the lives of individuals from oppressed groups. While such a costume may be seen as humorous by the individual wearing it, it is important to remember that when Halloween is over, this person can simply take off the costume and move on with their day-to-day life. There is no way for members of a stigmatized group to step out of their bodies or remove their skin when wearing it becomes inconvenient.
But what if the individual wearing the costume does not intend for it to be offensive or discriminatory? Having good intentions does not erase the fact that a costume itself is still tied to a specific history and perpetuates oppressive images when it is worn. The costume wearer’s intentions cannot nullify the pain felt by members of oppressed groups upon seeing this costume, or the fact that the costume remains a manifestation of the discrimination that structures the reality of many individuals’ lives. Furthermore, focusing only on the intent of the costumed individual is a way in which the interests of dominant groups are furthered over the voices and perspectives of non-dominant groups. The fact that a person wearing a costume is not even aware of its implications is indicative of a larger problem of privilege, in which this individual has been so distanced from oppression that they cannot even begin to conceive of why their actions might be offensive to another.
Many Halloween costumes rely upon humour and puns. Because our society is no longer explicitly racist or exclusionary, humour often serves as a major vehicle for perpetuating and naturalizing oppressive images. An offensive Halloween costume can easily be passed off as “no big deal” when it is perceived as humorous. Humour also creates the conditions for discrediting those who voice their concern about offensive costumes by casting these dissenters as uptight, missing the point, or overly invested in political correctness. Marissa Campbell from the Women and Gender Studies Student Union notes that living in what is commonly perceived as a “post-racist society makes it seem that we are an educated population [and] therefore these images are unproblematic, yet they are more problematic because they become subverted.” Discrimination and oppression are as real, if far more subtle, than ever, making it important to ensure that one’s costume does not inadvertently support these large and powerful systems.
Ultimately, if Halloween is about humour, fun, and subversion, wearing a costume that reiterates overused discriminatory stereotypes is in no way true to the spirit of the holiday. There is nothing new or funny about oppression. This Halloween, students should challenge themselves to make sure that their costume and their fun are in no way based, no matter how unintentionally or indirectly, on another group’s subjugation.
