Every year throughout the month of October we are treated to the predictable wailing and whining about ‘offensive’ costumes. From the ‘We’re a Culture, Not a Costume’ poster campaign to every indignant liberal on social media lecturing about their pet oppression cause of the week, it is always the same message: ‘You must change your idea of fun to cater to my idea of offense.’
From Delia Melody, Huffington Post, Trans Bodies are Not a Halloween Costume:
Now, obviously, I would never seriously advocate that anyone actually dress as a trans murder victim for Halloween, and I’d certainly like to hope that everyone can see how offensive and hateful that would be. So, why do we have such a hard time seeing it in the Caitlyn Jenner costume?
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Many Halloween costumes involve fake blood. Sadly, in this case, the blood is all too real. It’s easy to say it’s “just a costume,” and at the end of the night, you can take it off. But we can’t take off our transness, and we will continue having to live with the consequences of the subtle, casual hatred your costume embodies. My hope is that with education, you’ll learn to leave our bodies out of your fright-night wardrobe selection, because frankly, we’re running out of blood for you to use.
Halloween is the one time of the year boys dress up as girls and vise versa for fun and this writer has to make it about transgender murders, which incidentally is absurd since actual murders of trans people for being trans is so rare only 1 or 2 per year are even reported. The 23 transgender murders the writer cites, linked to a comprehensive list, are literally transgender people who were murdered. She, like the rest of the LGBT community, simply imposes her narrative of transgender murders onto them.
But to the point, when she sees someone dressed as Caitlyn Jenner she delves into the darkest parts of her own sense of victimhood to find layers of meaning that simply do not exist. The problem is she is demanding we recognize, respect and act on this paranoia to satisfy it. For her sake and the sake of transgendered women killed, not for actually being trans but nevermind that, it is important that you curb your own enjoyment. Suddenly the entire culture of drag in the gay world is now a mockery of transgender murders putting all transgender women in danger if you follow her line of thinking.
And on it goes. Of course by now we all know how they feel about dressing up as a geisha or a Native American, but as it always does, the creep of PC culture never stops. Today on my twitter feed I saw a rant about dressing up as homeless people or crazed mental institution residents with 20k retweets. Naturally gay men dressed as sexy nuns or dirty priests is still hilarious and likely to win every costume contest entered.
I am a Jew. There is a rabbi costume on Amazon, alongside a wide variety of the make-fun-of-Catholics kind, that has a single negative comment related to the quality of the costume itself. It simply would not occur to me to be offended by seeing someone in a rabbi outfit. For one, as a Jew, I know that ‘rabbi’ has many visual meanings. My own is a woman for example. Also, I am perfectly content with my ethnicity and culture to not require anyone else to validate it. If someone non-Jewish was wearing that rabbi costume I would laugh and probably take a selfie with them. A woman could wear that costume, beard and all, and it would be hilarious.
Jews have a holiday often referred to as the Jewish Halloween called ‘Purim.’ Purim celebrates a time when a Jewish princess saved our people from extermination by an evil man. On Purim we dress up in the most ridiculous costumes imaginable, get drunk and enjoy ourselves. Guess what we don’t do? Complain that various Purim costumes could be offensive to others. Guess what liberals don’t do. The same. You never hear about why its terribly dangerous to trans women if a man dresses up as Caitlyn Jenner on Purim.
The reason is privilege. We live in a time when we have the luxury to be offended. Minority groups enjoy a privilege to be offended unlike anyone in our society and during Halloween we see that privilege exercised. The idea behind the outrage is that oppressed people are harmed by seeing their oppressors parade around mocking them and stealing their culture and dignity. But literally everyone who enjoys Halloween knows that isn't the case at all. No one chooses a costume with the idea in mind of mocking an oppressed group. People choose Halloween costumes for the sheer enjoyment of being something different for a night or two.
Minority groups in our country are highly respected and the majority population is extremely sensitive to our needs (I belong to two minority groups, believe me I know). But the left has taken this privilege and abused it to such an extent the generalized good people of America are routinely accused of terrible thought crimes without any ability to fight back. Most just accept it. But on Halloween we are all supposed to be free from the nonsense of the world and most people enjoy that freedom.
The progressive left is all about control. It isn’t enough that the vast majority of people are kind, respectful, careful and considerate almost all of the time. No. Halloween is the one time of the year when their control slips away and that is why they so obsessively focus on it as the loudest whining holiday of the year. Even more than Columbus Day. The citizens of this country experience nothing even close to oppression and this is evidenced by the choice of the left to complain about how people choose to dress up on one holiday during the year. We live in such obscene luxury that we can enjoy the purest joys of righteous indignation from the comfort of our couches swiping through Instagram photos and declaring our judgment to the world.
When you see someone on twitter or facebook whining about the social implications of this costume or the injustice of that one just know you are witnessing pure abuse of power from someone so intoxicated by their own sense of special-snow-flakeness they genuinely believe they are fighting a moral battle. It is the responsibility of every rational person out there to laugh, mock and utterly dismiss it all for the nonsense it truly is. It matters because innocent people having innocent fun find themselves as examples of the worst of racism’s bigots by self-important thought-Nazis with social media followers. We really have nothing to gain and everything to lose by allowing them to indulge their destructive toxic influence on our society.
Just say no to party poopers.
There is genuinely no reason any person of any ethnicity, group, minority, culture, imagined culture or any other sense of being special should feel threatened or harmed by witnessing someone else’s interpretation of them on this holiday. In fact it is likely the appreciation and enjoyment of said cultural expression that inspires a person to choose it for their costume. I promise no one is trying to offend you. Well, except for...liberals! Ironically, as Zack Ford, Editor for LGBT Think Progress, and my favorite example of liberal insanity, demonstrates, the only people who choose costumes meant to intentionally insult for political reasons are liberals.
One final thought on all this. I am a gay man and gay Halloween is unlike any other Halloween in the country. Gay Halloween has always been even more provocative, extreme, political, hysterical and yes, even fun, than the most flamboyant gay pride parade could hope to be. If you want to see what true debauchery, hilarity, parody, amusement, sexuality and genuine fun looks like in an, ironically, PC-free environment, celebrate Halloween in a gay bar this year. Take in the creativity, the clever designs, the intricate details and most of all take in the absolute abandon and freedom of expression. It might be the most and very last place in our country where people are allowed to really enjoy Halloween.
Check your privilege, grow up and stop whining about Halloween costumes. No one cares if you are offended.