Our politically correct elite insist that nothing anyone does shall offend anyone at all. For example, the University of Colorado-Boulder announced that “offensive” Halloween costumes will not be allowed. Of course, the “offense” is in the eye of the beholder, not in the intent of the alleged “offender.”
Among the “offensive” costumes verboten are those suggesting that a culture is “over-sexualized,” such as geishas or squaws. It is my impression that geishas, at least in modern times, do not provide sex, and that “squaw” simply means any American Indian woman. Regardless, the university forbids them.
Other forbidden costumes include cowboys and Indians, which all of us played as children, as well as negative representations of cultures as associated with “poverty, crime, or sex work.” Note the revealing association of poverty with crime. The intent is to excuse crime as the unfortunate result of poverty. But the result may be to tar all poor people as potential criminals.
This is an insult to the many millions of poor people who never commit crimes. When my mother first met my father, he was almost literally penniless, as were her brothers. But my father wound up a respected physician, and my uncles wound up as store owners and home owners. And wonder of wonders, they never held up a liquor store. Why is it “liberal” or “progressive” to belittle and slander the poor, while pretending to help them?
So “ghetto,” “white trash/hillbilly,” or cowboy costumes are out because they are “crude stereotypes.” And so are sombreros and serapes, because they may be offensive to Mexican Americans. And so are “genie” costumes, because they may be offensive to…whom, exactly? The Amalgamated Union of Genies, Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves, X-Men, and Zombies?
Halloween is now the second largest shopping season, and it is creeping up on Christmas. (Pun intended.) It would be going too far to draw theological conclusions from this fact. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the first year it was incorporated as a city, West Hollywood, California closed the city offices on Halloween but kept them open on Christmas. What we choose to honor – or not honor – tells a great deal about us.
When I was a child, Halloween was a children’s holiday. Our elementary school had an annual program. I recall that we were blindfolded, then told to shake hands with the Zombie – which was a rubber glove filled with ice water. I admit it did feel creepy to a fifth grader. But by the time I got to high school, Halloween was largely ignored. It was celebrated at home if we had smaller brothers or sisters.
But now, Halloween is celebrated by a wider age spectrum. Teenagers, college students, and older adults may take part. But don’t misunderstand. I’m not against innocent fun, even silliness. My wife and I often go to the West Hollywood street fair and enjoy the creative costumes. My favorite act was the “Taliband,” a group dressed up in sheets, playing madly on their musical instruments while waving a toy AK-47. Just to show you that I can be as silly as the next guy, I remarked loudly to the people around us, “They’re good, but not as good as Osama’s Mommas.” That got a feeble laugh from the bystanders.
Still, I have reservations about adults celebrating what is essentially a children’s holiday. I believe it is part of a wider picture of blurring distinctions. Political correctness teaches us to ignore the distinctions between males and females, to the point of allowing boys who claim they feel like girls to use the girls’ lavatory and locker room. We are even insisting that male Marines wear covers (caps) identical to female Marines’. Now there’s a brilliant expenditure of scarce military funds.
And now we are also blurring the distinctions between child and adult. We hyper-sexualize young children, especially girls. The malls are filled with prepubescent and young teenage girls in short shorts and skimpy tank tops, accompanied by mothers dressed in the same fashion. What kind of parenting can these mothers provide, when they act like teenagers themselves, and they want their little girls to act like teenagers? They are mothers, not slightly older sisters.
True, adults running around in Halloween costumes as if they were small children will not bring about the fall of Western Civilization, but it’s still worth thinking about. Childish adults are not likely to keep their freedoms. They are more likely to become dependent, just as real children do. But the government can become a controlling and bullying parent. It already is.
Nevertheless, if you’re not a student at a politically correct college, and you want to dress up in a really scary costume, forget about the genies, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, X-men, and zombies. Just put on a set of scrubs, a pair of rubber gloves, and an Obama mask, and go door-to-door asking, “ObamaCare or treat?” You’ll go home with a ton of goodies. That’s a really frightening prospect.
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