Politically correct Halloween

Usually, I enjoy checking out the kids’ costumes as they run down the street on Halloween night, cheerfully collecting treats during this most magical of nights. 

This year, I wasn’t enchanted. I was offended. 

At least, that’s what I was told I should feel.

A group of Ohio University students began a campaign this year against what they called racist costumes – caricatures of cultural stereotypes. 

A series of posters, which has made CNN and ABC News, depicts an individual holding a picture of a stereotype usually associated with his or her culture.  An Asian girl is holding a picture of a Geisha. A Muslim boy is holding a picture of a terrorist.
The statement beside each: “We are a culture, not a costume. This is not who I am, and this is not okay.”

OK, I agree with the Muslim image.  It’s a sensitive subject and not appropriate in today’s climate. 
And as any Canadian will agree, we are more than our ever-polite stereotype.

So why would anyone want their heritage to be confused with an inaccurate two-dimensional image? 
But I have to wonder if these students have become just a little too zealous.

I never thought the Asian girl was a Geisha. I thought the Geisha was a Geisha.  That’s a specific role that women lived in Japan. 
They didn’t pretend to be them. They were them. 

Yes, the picture of someone wearing a colourful poncho, a handlebar moustache and a sombrero is clichéd and not exactly a modern image.

But are we really suggesting that every Mexican is dressed like this?  Is the sexy Gypsy an affront to Romanies?  Or the Leprechaun, an attack on the Irish?

And where does this stop? Are actors going to lash-out at the Halloween typecasting too? 

If I dress up as The Joker, am I risking the ire of Jack Nicholson? 

Should anyone decked out as a Hobbit fear attack by a tribe of short New Zealanders?

Is every Marilyn Monroe-wannabe in a white dress on the verge of being sued by Norma Jean’s estate? 

Maybe we should forego people costumes altogether. Yet I can’t help but worry that the toddler in a Jack-o-lantern suit could cause an uprising in a pumpkin patch somewhere. 

You may love the little girl in her pretty butterfly costume, but what of the lowly caterpillar at home?

Halloween is about being something or someone other than yourself for a night.  For others, like myself, it’s more about piecing together some kind of outfit with whatever junk you’ve got in the back of your closet. 

We’re not trying to offend, just to pretend. But we’ll try to be sensitive to the feelings of others. That’s why next year, I’m going as Barry Third.