It's my favorite time of year again. Halloween. I love everything about it. The sales, the costumes, the tacky pumpkin carvings and the decorative gourds. It's all got a niche charm to it. With all the fall celebration coming into place, this time of year also opens a can of worms, especially for women like Delia Melody.
"I love halloween. Hands down, my favorite holiday of the year, but so many costumes are just so lazy and uninspired," says Delia. She's relatively new to the scene of online blogging, having started her YouTube channel in the winter of 2014. "Okay, fine I get it. You wanna dress as a trans woman for halloween," she says at the beggining of her video. "If you wanna dress as a trans woman for halloween? You need to dress as a trans murder victim. It's macabre, It's morbid. It's literally horrifying. it's the kind of thing that gives trans women like me nightmares every single night." She's absolutely right.
Her video listed above, touches particularly on a tough subject. "As a transgender woman of color, I am frequently subject to the effects of casual transphobia. It's the part that no one ever seems to think about, which is saying a lot, seeing as how over [23] transgender women have been murdered this year, and no one seems to know or care," she says. Her words and sentiment echo the harsh reality for transgender people of color, navigating an unforgiving society that does not allow rest for them.
Zella Ziona, the 21st trans woman to be killed this year was murdered for "embarrassing" her killer. What's embarrassing is that a man can kill a woman and for some reason that act is somehow less shameful than a woman expressing herself in a cold man's mind.
Image via Delia Melody
This is the reason Delia Melody created the video above. With the looming fear of death also comes the social conservative resistance to transgender equality. This is the time of year where in some people's minds, anything goes. "Sure," they think to themselves. "I'll wear this generic Native American costume even though i've never even been to a tribal ritual." Don't wear it Carl! Cultures are NOT costumes. I'll say it one more time for the people in the back. Cultures. Aren't costumes! Good, I hope we're clear.
Here's a second nugget of wisdom for this Halloween: Trans bodies are not costumes. Our identities are not masks we can take on and off freely. Whether we express this outwardly or only on the inside, it does not change the people we've always known we are.
"When you put on a culture or an identity as a costume, whether it's someone's race, or gender, you are dehumanizing them. Just look at the costumes, and the way they portray other human beings. It's all negative stereotypes that paint anyone who's not white, cis and male as less than human," says Delia, and she makes a strong point. Wearing these costumes only further enforces white supremacy, male supremacy and other advancements that do not comply to the definition of equality. So think before you costume, because it's not a joke. It has consequences, and we can't take it off.