Practically everyone has heard the quote from “Mean Girls”: “In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it.”

Dressing slutty on Halloween is a tradition I’ve come to embrace with open arms. I’m a huge fan of body empowerment. 

I love seeing people walk around with their asscheeks out in a sexy costume. I love walking around with my asscheeks out in a sexy costume. I love that people love to dress up in sexy costumes with their asscheeks out, together, in celebration of Halloween. 

I do want to note that I do not resonate with the negative connotation of the word “slutty.” Any reference to that term in this article is not meant to be perceived offensively.

Something about seeing the majority of my peers on Halloween weekend in slutty attire encourages me to partake. Since everyone around me seems to be dressing freely, it feels as though the target that I’m typically subject to when dressed in something considered slutty is removed.

I don’t feel pairs of eyes dissecting me, because those eyes are darting around everywhere. Because almost everyone’s titties and asses are out.

Preferably, I’d like no eyes to be dissecting anyone’s clothes or the bodies beneath them. But that’s unfortunately not realistic. 

I feel a sense of solidarity amongst those who dress slutty on Halloween. I would like to parade the streets hand-in-hand with all the sexy nurses, sexy officers, sexy pirates and sexy-whatever-costume wearers every day if I could. 

But it unfortunately isn’t safe to do that. Even though this feeling of safety in the way I dress is temporary, for one October night a year, I want to enjoy it to its fullest capability. 

And I will.

There’s power in numbers, as well as comfort. When it seems like a lot of people are facing the day titties and/or asses out, it feels normal. It feels right. It feels safer than usual to do the same because there are not just a few of us for gross predators to prey and feast their eyes on. 

It’s like we’re an undefeatable force of superheroes using our eternal powers of seduction to our advantage against all mankind for one spooky, slutty night a year. 

I know some will say, “What do you expect when you’re dressed in nothing?” or, a personal least-favorite of mine, “You’re asking for it.”

Let’s stop blaming instances of rape and sexual assault on victims’ attire. The truth is, a top-shelf chastity belt probably isn’t stopping a horned-up assaulter. The best cure for that is holding men accountable for their actions instead of referring back to the trusty “boys will be boys” mantra. 

The “What were you wearing?” exhibit reflects this point exactly, providing photographs of the clothing that rape and sexual assault victims wore when their attacks took place in an effort to “dispel a victim-blaming myth that clothing somehow invites a sexual assault.”

I want to wear barely anything because I’m young and I’m hot and my body will probably never look better than it does right now. Just because I want to use a holiday as an excuse to confidently flaunt it does not mean an open invitation to objectify me is included. 

“Whatever you wear someone will have a thought about it. The importance of this thought is insignificant and more importantly fleeting,” a woman by the name of Maia Roston wrote in an article titled “How Halloween helped me love my body.”

Halloween is the peak of spooky season. For some, the goal is to be scary. For others, the goal is to be hot and sexy. I, for one, look forward to witnessing all of the above. 

I don’t need an excuse to want to flaunt what I got and neither do you. No attire — regardless of much or little of it there may be — can serve as a form of consent. Have a slutty, spooky and safe Halloween!

Ellie Marty can be reached at [email protected]