By Lauren Smith

   Jack-o-Lanterns twinkle in the moonlight. Young boys dressed as ninjas and pirates hit each other with their plastic swords. And young girls, looking like something that just walked out of a brothel, strut down the sidewalk and ask for candy with the other children. There is something devastatingly wrong with this picture.

    Halloween is supposed to be a time of fun, frights and excessive amounts of sugar. Children and adults can dress up as almost anything. It’s a time for creativity and self-expression, but more and more it’s turning into a chance for young girls to wear provocative costumes that some would consider completely inappropriate.

  Everyone deserves the right to dress up as whatever they want, within reason. There is a social etiquette that needs to be observed. If a seven year old wants to dress like a ladybug, then she can. By all means. However, if that ladybug costume entails fishnet tights, four inch heels and a skirt that threatens to expose unmentionables, then perhaps there should be costume reconsideration.

   Some will argue that Halloween is one night a year and these costumes are exactly that, just costumes. But what is not being observed is how comfortable these young girls have to be with exposing their skin to even pick these costumes out in the first place. If they are allowed to dress provocatively for Halloween, can they dress the same way for Christmas or Thanksgiving?

   Adult costume stores such as “Trashy Lingerie” sell Halloween costumes for a purpose: to stimulate their adult customers. This is not what Halloween should be about for kids and family Halloween stores should not be producing children’s Halloween costumes that emulate garments that can be found in a back-alley “costume” shop.

  Giving these downsized adult costumes sassy names, such as “Candi Korn” and “Cutie Pirate” hardly makes them appropriate for young girls to wear. If they begin wearing provocative clothes at age seven, then what can they be expected to wear at age seventeen?

   Self expression aside, highly sexualized costumes are for adults in the privacy of their own homes, not children wandering the streets asking for candy. Other kids and their parents should be able to enjoy All Hallows Eve without worrying about witnessing a costume malfunction.