It’s that time of the year again: Halloween. This means you will be subjected to seeing men and women in revealing clothing. For some reason, societal attention has a laser focus on skimpy costumes even though people dress can dress equally as revealing throughout the rest of the year without a bat of the eye.

If a man or woman wants to dress in a revealing way for Halloween, their body shouldn’t be your business.

Many people criticize Halloween costumes because they are too “skimpy;” however, people should feel safe wearing whatever they would like to express themselves.

On Halloween, you get to choose who you want to be. Since everyone has different goals in life, different trends exist in Halloween costumes. Someone dressed completely covered should be regarded the same as someone dressed in little clothing.

Furthermore, body image is a growing concern on social media. The theory is that one must love their body, no matter what. If you have a flaw, embrace it. If you don’t love your body, you cannot have an ideal level of confidence and ability to express yourself.

“It is completely up to the individual as to whether [he or] she wants to buy these costumes,” said Shannon Zuber, writer for Valley Magazine.

This logic supports the startling idea that people are under their own sovereignty and can choose what they want to put on their body.

If people constantly criticize Halloween costumes for being too “sexy,” then people may feel as if the body itself is at fault. This isn’t the case. The flaw is in sexualizing men and women to a hateful extent. If one feels the need to show their body they shouldn’t have to feel hated or criticized by society.

“As long as you’re in control and doing it because you want to, have fun,” said Kathleen Furey of LivLuna on wearing revealing Halloween costumes.

Additionally, Halloween is fun. You aren’t supposed to be worrying if the person in the corner is judging you. By putting criticism on an entire genre of Halloween costume, society is creating unnecessary cynicism on a holiday.

All in all, everyone should be encouraged to be himself or herself. If that means one wants to show some skin, then so be it. Bodies belong to the person and shouldn’t be under the scrutiny of other people.

This Halloween, I encourage the popular meme
found on social media: you do you.