Over the Halloween weekend I had intended to write this grand piece on what other bloggers and people in the straight world have noted: Halloween brings out the sexy and kinky in people who normally don’t take these personas out of the bedroom, if they were ever existent in the bedroom in the first place. More than a few people were seen walking around Halloween weekend in super-sexy, shiney and even perverted costumes. While some of these people are likely the type to feel relatively shameless wearing that gear any other time of the year, it’s the rest of the people who would judge them any other time of the year turning the other way and dressing up all crazy themselves. What is it about Halloween that brings out the freak in everyone?
It’s kind of like my memories of growing up in conservative Northern Kentucky. I remember being in elementary school and witnessing on more than a few Halloweens, with more than a few different boys dressing up in drag. In such a heterocentrist (and dare I say, violently homophobic culture) that was that area in the 1980’s, I wonder just how these “good”, Republican, gay-bashing parents and their mimicking kids embraced the gender-bending taboo of cross-dressing. While I’m not one to make sweeping generalizations all the time, I do wonder if this is something that is seen all through the “good” evangelically Christian red-states. Is this the twisted embrace of dressing up as the thing that most scares you or is this the bright light shining on hypocrisy?
I’ll let all this musing go for now and just rest comfortably knowing that my identity as “goth” entitles me to celebrate everyday as Halloween. I think it just might be more honest that way.