Halloween: The Horrors of Being a Woman
I have never gone as all out for Halloween as I did this year. It was my first Halloween being single in two years, and you better believe I was excited. I had three (three!) slutty costumes. I had the whole weekend booked off work. I was going to go out and have fun with my friends, with no evil long-distance boyfriend waiting on the other end of the phone like a serial killer in a slasher film.
Night one of my Halloweekend found me in Edinburgh. I had a great time, and I looked good doing it! But before I got the bus home, I traded my miniskirt for a pair of jeans. Now, I come from a freezing cold coastal town. I am well used to toughing it out on a night out until I am covered in goosebumps and can't wait to return home to my fluffy pyjamas and woolly socks. So believe me: my outfit change was not motivated by a sudden burst of sensibility.
I changed because I was scared to be a young woman out late in a short skirt. When I reflected on the choice I had made, swapping feeling cute for feeling safe, I began to think of all the ways in which my experience of Halloweekend was shaped by being a woman.
One of the most vivid memories I have of Fright Night this year is being groped in 601. I am not the only person this happened to in my friend group. And while we tried to carry on having fun, and not let it put a damper on our night, spoiler alert! It did. News flash: getting groped is pretty shit. No one likes to feel less safe in the place that they live. But it struck me that this incident only really proved that it was less safe for a certain half of the population.
As a young single woman who recently (as per my last article) committed to conscious singlehood for the foreseeable future, I was definitely not against finding a cute Clark Kent or (if pickings were slim) maybe a lazy generic blood-spattered boy to spend Halloween with. But after this, I couldn't help but wonder – can I afford to trust a total stranger enough to go home with him?
This is not a case against hook-ups or one-night stands. I just think it's important that we acknowledge the fact that men and women experience Halloween, nightlife, and casual sex, as a whole, very differently. Because it's not all men, but it is some men. And it can be very hard to tell them apart.
This culture of misogyny is hugely unfair and terrifying, and is not something I can offer a solution to. I just hope that one day, the scariest thing we have to be afraid of at Halloween is my elaborate, gruesome costume which I can afford because I am no longer operating on a student budget (In this utopian future, the graduate job market is actually good and I am also fabulously rich).
Until then – stay safe.
If you have experienced gender based sexual harassment or violence – please know there is help available! Unfortunately, this kind of thing is far from uncommon, and so you are not alone.
You can contact police or university Student Services on +44 (0) 1334 462020. To report an assault, you can call Rape Crisis Scotland’s free helpline on 08088 010302. Further support is available from the NHS, including counselling and referrals to support groups.
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