I never liked Halloween; even as a kid--really. Remember those horrible plastic masks you would wear, and your breathing got them all wet inside, and your eyeholes had the same visibility as Ray Charles driving at night... Plus, there is nothing worse than a holiday where other people dress up into supposedly bad costumes only to realize these are things from your closet. I think we need to revamp this holiday in a big way. I will provide alternative suggestions tomorrow, but for now since I know I haven't convinced you, I will show you some really bad costumes for you to use.
Here is a link some of you saw last year. RetroCrush's list of Worst Halloween Costumes. My favorite is Welcome Back Kotter.
What do Milli Vanilli, Max Headroom, and Molly Ringwald all have in common? They are 80's Costume Suggestions found online, (and they all start with 'M'). I was somewhat discouraged to realize that the Marty McFly costume description sounded like my typical fall attire! Uh-oh.
Finally I am not the only one who cares little for Halloween. The National Assoc. for Mental Institutions (yes, don't pretend you don't know who they are!) is angry about the portrayal of mental patients as scary halloween characters. Because, we all know that Freddy Kruger, behind that scarred face is really just "a nice guy". So was Norman Bates and Hannibal Lechter, and all of Hollywood's portrayals of the loveable mental patients! (note sarcasm, and the underlying text that they won't bother an industry with big bucks and power.) Besides, didn't you ever see the movie "Dream Team"!
Here is NAMI's list of 'worst offenders' from last year:
NAMI released a list of some of the nation's worst "Halloween Horrors" produced or sponsored by companies that have ignored appeals by both President Bush and the U.S. Surgeon General to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness for the public good. The list includes:
* Disguise, Inc. which produces a "Straight Jacket" costume previously marketed as "Mental Patient." See www.disguise.com.
* Spencer Gifts, a key distributor of the costume, along with another labeled "Psycho Rodeo Clown." See www.spencergift.com.
* Six Flags Amusement Park in Dallas, Texas, host of a "Fright Fest" featuring Dr. Malice, initially promoted as an insane asylum escapee, whose demented experiments include "Electro-Shock Trivia." (In response to initial complaints, the park tried to tone down the references to mental illness and gave free tickets to NAMI Dallas for distribution to consumers). See www.sixflags.com/parks/overtexas/home.asp.
* The Netherworld Haunted House "Inner Sanctum" in Atlanta "dedicated to aggressively treating the most severe forms of mental illness," which included Pepsi and Subway among its "friends and sponsors."