Shut Up And Listen 241

I remember the year I stopped giving a fuck about Halloween. It was the Halloween of 1999, I believe. I was sixteen and it was the first year I hadn't gone out. A bit late, but I had friends who wanted to go out before that, so I went. I didn't particularly enjoy myself, but I went. In 1999, I remember sitting in the basement, The Simpsons on (its Halloween episode actually on Halloween . . .) and rereading the first two arcs of Ellis and Hitch's run on The Authority. Rather enjoyable Halloween come to think of it. That was when I stopped giving a fuck, though. And I miss what Halloween used to be.

Today, at the Gazette, our ed board was about what Halloween means to university students and it depressed me, in a weird way. The EIC started things off by asking what Halloween is now for uni students and how has it changed since we were all kids, and I answered immediately saying something like "The answer to both questions is drunken sex." And that's all it is: one more excuse to get sloshed and fuck around. How depressing is that?

Friday night, I was at a party and, while I had a good time, it was also a sorry sight to behold. Sure, it wasn't much different than most parties, but just to compare it with what Halloween once meant and what it still means to a shitload of kids, just depresses me.

Costumes aren't about just being what you want to be, it's about being clever or, well, slutty. Honestly, I went with a costume that meant something to me and I'd get shit like "No one will recognise it." So fucking what? Did I care when I was a little kid if people would get my costume? No. If I wanted to be a vampire, I was a vampire, damn the world.

The same can be said for a lot of people, I guess, but is it really dressing up when your costume is a slutty Snow White and you spend every other weekend being a plain old slut? It's just an excuse to be extra slutty in a "clever" way.

It's not just women doing it either. At the aforementioned party, I saw MUCH more of the guys than the girls. It was the year of the man slut.

I guess it's just the juxtaposition between now and then that bothers me. To just see how far we've all slid. I'm not exactly a prude or a moralist, but . . . fuck. It's sad. I mean, who really wants to be told "If you want to get laid, dress up as a Care Bear. We had to fight them off"?

Or who wants to see someone dress up as a zombie UWO girl complete with period blood dripping down their leg? Seriously, that's just wrong. How the hell does a zombie get its period, moron?

Ah well. Childhood dies eventually. I just wish sometimes the corpses weren't so fucking disgusting.