Ode to the Slutty Halloween Costume

“In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”

That quote is uttered by Cady Heron in Mean Girls (2004) as she navigates her first Halloween party in “girl world,” i.e. American high school. When the movie came out, the line felt cutting and incisive, a remark on the commodification of… well, everything in the 2000s, but particularly sex and femininity, and thereby girlhood and womanhood. And not only its commodification, but the way it was policed and ultimately weaponized against women.

I’ve already written about this plenty, but the early 2000s were a confusing time to grow up as a girl. (That’s putting it lightly; it was a harrowing time to grow up as a girl.) Sex was thrown at us from every possible angle, sold to us as not only desirable but necessary, and yet actually being one of those sexy women was largely treated as shameful, deserving of degradation from high school boys all the way up to the morning news shows. To be sexual—to embrace or “use” one’s sexuality—and female-identifying in the early 2000s was a fraught balancing act, and one that came with a heaping helping of widely-accepted vitriol that was unique to the era.

The quote from Mean Girls is often cherry-picked, removed from the larger context of the film in order to mock women, which, ironically, ignores some of the film’s most transparent messages: Let’s not call each other sluts—or insult one another based on harmless personal choices in general—for starters. (Unless you’re reclaiming the word, in which case, dope, more power to you; it has been a whopping 19 years since this movie came out.) Beyond that, wear the clothes that make you feel good, period. Halloween is the perfect time to tap into whatever side of yourself you want, and there’s nothing shameful about wanting to look hot – whatever your definition of that may be.

I like to think that in 2023, we’ve at least begun to move beyond the whole virgin/slut binary. A girl can dream, at least.

Anyway, I’m not willing to delve into the kind of psyche it takes to salivate over scantily-clad women while also hating them and wishing them ill… I’d rather revel in some of my favorite “slutty” costume moments from film and television.

Mean Girls (2004)

Obviously – this is the look that inspired this entire screed. Regina George’s sexy bunny costume (along with Gretchen’s cat and Karen’s mouse, respectively) is simply iconic.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Halloween” (1997)

Buffy tries to convince Willow to step outside her comfort zone with a sexy costume, but Willow ends up hiding under a sheet and being a ghost (an already too-familiar feeling for Willow) instead. I adore this plotline, because it feels so perceptive about the conundrum girls face as they’re growing up. It’s that dichotomy Willow feels, the need to be perceived as a sexual being battling with her desire to literally disappear and not be perceived at all, that I related to as a teen (and still do, honestly).

One Tree Hill, “An Attempt to Tip the Scales” (2005)

“You know, the devil doesn’t have sequins or feathers, or breasts, for that matter.”

“Well, in my universe, she does.”

I can’t fully describe my love for Brooke Davis as a character, so I won’t even try. The costume, however, is fabulously overdone in a very 2000s way – the corset top, with the feathers no less, plus the fur waistline… it’s a lot. But that wig is perfectly Alias/2005 and Sophia Bush can pull off anything, so it’s fashion, I say.

Legally Blonde (2001)

Another iconic bunny costume, this one with some real Playboy vibes. Elle gets tricked into wearing a costume to a non-costume Halloween party (which… how lame, amiright?), but it only spurs her on to prove everyone wrong about their perception of her as a “dumb blonde.” Elle was such a bright spot in the early aughts – a woman who refused to let her hyperfemininity be a reason for people to treat her with less respect. Before Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, we had Elle Woods.

Wish Upon a Star (1996)

God, I love this movie. Danielle Harris’s (OG crush) dominatrix outfit may not be worn as a Halloween costume during the film (it’s only worn by her more confident older sister when she’s inhabiting the younger sister’s body… it’s a Freaky Friday thing), but it’s mentioned that it was the older sister’s last Halloween costume, so it counts. Anyway, I love a good goth moment and this one was particularly formative for me.

Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

Ooh, we love a subverted trope in horror, don’t we? The werewolf girls in Trick ‘r Treat subvert all the slutty costume stereotypes, using their revealing fairytale princess outfits to lure lustful men to their deaths. Then they rip off their own skins and howl at the moon. It’s hot.

Halloween II (2009)

Angela Trimbur as Harley as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, or as she puts it, “a chick who’s dressed up as a dude who wants to be a chick.” *Sigh* I just love everything about it. So sexy and so queer.

Those are mine, now what are yours? Tell me in the comments!