We've Got Issues

With plastic leaves clinging seductively to their bodies, Adam and Eve walked hand in hand. Together they were the perfect pair: her with her long, twig-filled hair down her back, him in a cloth wrapped around his waist. This is a typical scene on Halloween at a high school.As a little kid you think of Halloween as a time of candy and make-believe. You create an elaborate costume, play harmless tricks on your scary next-door neighbor, and engorge yourself with sugared delights. Yet as you get older, Halloween morphs into a whole new animal.

You would be hard-pressed to go to a party this time of year and not see women of all ages wearing sexy costumes, Even the most mundane concept is turned into risqué ensembles not fit to be worn in public on any other day. A nun's habit turns into a mini skirt and Disney characters' full-length ball gowns turn into near-bikinis. Nothing is safe.

This trend is clearly getting out of hand. These costumes are making their way into the closets of girls of all ages, allowing younger girls to put their bodies on display for the world, and get a candy treat for doing so.

The Halloween stores on every corner have a prevailing theme across all the costumes, be it the men, women, or children sections. Sex and sexiness permeates every outfit, far more so than the horror that has so long been a part of the Halloween tradition.

The slutty Alice in Wonderland costume has an adult and child version, the one difference being a slightly longer hemline for the little girls. The children's witch costume is only mildly better, coming with striped stockings to obscure the short hemline.

There are even some costumes marketed directly towards children, like the pop star costume that consists of a short halter top with matching glitter bellbottoms.

In the adult section, you can find "tween" costumes including sexy versions of Goldilocks, ladybugs, and maids. According to the Free Online Dictionary, a tween is "a child between middle childhood and adolescence, usually between 8 and 12 years old." Apparently girls as young as eight years old are considered mature enough to wear these suggestive and overly sexy costumes.

Sure, every woman throws on a pair of animal ears and some lingerie and parades around their peers showing how sexy and slutty they can be. For those of us in college, it's perfectly fine. There might be judging going on, but it usually involves how the color of that girl's pasties goes much better with her costume than those of the other girl also dressed as a martini. No one worries about how your booty shorts are a whole half inch shorter than the girl next to you.

The problem isn't with the adult crowd. It is the teens and tweens that are giving Halloween a bad name, which is difficult to do with a holiday that represents horror and mischief.

These little girls are wearing completely suggestive outfits that scream jailbait. They wear them in high school and middle school alike, so much so that school administrations provide daily announcements reminding the kids what is acceptable to wear. According to Dr. Mark Kelly, the principal of Malibu High School (which encompasses both the middle school and high school), these announcements seemed to reduce the number of girls wearing inappropriate costumes, but some still had to be told to add shorts to their "up to there" mini skirts.

Pre-pubescent girls don't have much to show off anyways. The costumes they wear are merely props in hopes of looking older. These girls just want to be mature, and get to their golden years, the college years.

Part of being in college is dressing up and turning every major event into a drinking holiday. If college-age girls want to wear thongs and stick pasties on covering their nipples, then so be it! College is a time to be reckless, without guilt or shame. Put on those naughty nurse outfits and spike heels and strut your stuff. However, keep the underage girls out of it.