How to be Hair-Raising without being Hurtful

I felt the need to deviate from my premade posting plan to address some major issues regarding Halloween on my college campus. I have seen truly terrifying things walking around, and I am not talking about ghouls and goblins.

MY CULTURE IS NOT YOUR COSTUME.

Dressing as a Native American is not cute or funny. This is so offensive. A person’s culture means everything to them. Culture represents lifestyle, beliefs, and fundamental values. Using someone’s culture as a costume is attacking the validity of their beliefs. An outsider looking in cannot possibly understand the meaning of a particular lifestyle.

Black face began as a theatrical show in the 20^th century. White people used makeup to depict and demean black people. To this very day, there are stories where white people use black face makeup to complete their Halloween costumes. Trust me, we will get what you are supposed to be without black face makeup.

AMOUNT OF CLOTHING DOESN'T COORDINATE TO SEXUAL ACTIVITY 

Just because a girl has on a “slutty” costume, doesn’t mean she is asking for sex. Slut shaming shouldn’t happen any day, but especially not on a magical night such as Halloween. If lingerie and heels is a particular girl’s choice in alter ego for the night, respect that choice.

As children, Halloween was a magical night. It was one night where you could dress up and be anything that your heart desired. This can continue in college as long as your costume doesn’t offend anyone or you aren’t bashing someone’s choice in costume on their magical night.

Virgin Shaming

Sex is a topic that people like to talk in circles about. Everyone views sex differently, and that’s okay!

One thing that frustrates me is that both men and women shame virgins, like being a virgin is a crime.

The majority of the people that I know are either sexually active or have been in the past. It’s almost a common thing to not be a “virgin” in college, well at least people assume so.

“What [college students] do not realize is that approximately 25 percent of college students in the United States are virgins. And, even for those who have had sex, the most common number of sexual partners to have had in the past year is one.”

This statistic may be surprising to some of you. Everyone has extremely high expectations about sex when in the college environment. Believe it or not, students are not participating in sexual activities as often as you think on the college campus.

What is the big deal about being a virgin? Females have their reasons.
They either fear sex for whatever reason, they choose to stick to their religious beliefs, they haven’t found anyone to make them comfortable yet, or they simply have private reasons.

Why is it wrong for someone to not be as sexually experienced as you? It’s not a race. Our generation needs to stop shaming people for having a mind of their own. Making someone feel out of place just because they don’t want to engage insexual activities is completely wrong. But, it’s sad to say that it’s unheard of for virgins to be “accepted”, I’ve witnessed plenty of times that either male or female virgins are looked down upon.

Being in college for a few months now, I have witnessed a few guys that admit that they tend to “stay away” from virgins. Nothing is wrong with a female that wants to wait. Same goes for the men.

Our generations now a days are so fast paced when it comes to sex that they have made this unspoken rule that being a virgin is uncool. I disagree!