It’s October!! One of my favorite months. Everything spooky is in the air, I can feel it.

I don’t trick or treat anymore , but I do like to partake in visiting haunted attractions. For you kids who still enjoy dressing up and trick or treating  here’s a little advice: try to stay clear of any costumes that might offend someone’s culture or religion. Don’t decide last minute “Oh I’ll be a Native American for Halloween.” Someone’s culture is NOT a costume.

It’s acceptable if you dress up as a specific famous or noble person, but make sure you do your research so you can represent this person correctly in a way that will not offend anyone. This goes for everyone no matter your race or ethnicity; someone else’s culture is not something to make fun of because it is their way of life. Take your time to learn and understand rather than judge and belittle.

This is the difference between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. Also, Please avoid black face, people. If you want to dress as Nicki Minaj by all means no one is stopping you ,but you do NOT need to color your skin to do so. That will not be tolerated.

Something else I’ve noticed is that most costumes for women are very sexualized, especially occupational costumes. You have “sexy” nurse, “sexy” teacher, “sexy” lawyer etc. They just put the word “sexy” in front of the title and remove half of the material and then there is the costume. It’s weird to me, but if that is what you want to do, to each his own. I’ve also seen with my own eyes a “sexy” nun costume. How and why would you sexualize religion? That is just morally wrong. All I am saying is that you should keep all of these things in mind when you are preparing to have a fun Halloween!!