Celebrate, don't appropriate

As I get older, I find myself experiencing things differently than I had in my past. Specifically, national holidays and events that have always had a presence in my upbringing serve now as times were I can observe change in my interpretations. Halloween once served as a time when I could expect everything to be put aside for a nationwide quest of sugary sweets. Candy was a childhood delight we were conditioned to resist. It was only offered when we ate our entire dinner or fulfilled some other paternalistic expectation; the risks and rarity of getting candy as a child made the eventual reward all the more sweet. In this sense, Halloween functioned as a purge-like event, where children could satisfy their desire for sugary sweets without any limit or caveat.

These days, while most of us don’t go out in search of that sugary goodness, we do find ourselves behaving in a purge-like manner, indulging ourselves in different sorts of desire. Halloween is described as a time where we experience a “thinning of the veil” between the world we navigate and another world beyond our own. In considering an alternate existence beyond our understanding, we push away from the governing binaries that have become embedded in our day-to-day lives.You can observe this in the practice of dressing up in Halloween costumes. While some folks don’t think too much about their choice of costume, others spend the entire month trying to find that perfect disguise. Nonetheless, costume choice is essentially product of a person’s thoughts and reflects their interpretation of their world. This is why we see different inflections of household cultural figures or our favorite throwback cartoons. 

This is also how we run into the issue of cultural appropriation. A culturally insensitive costume is based on an insensitive interpretation of someone’s culture and a person’s thoughts about that culture. Whether a person appropriating is aware of it or not, they are indulging hidden desires of marginalization or fetishization; a desire to possess something that is not—or is beyond—their own identity. The problem is that costumes like these only engages the surface.

On the other hand, the indulgence of desires doesn’t always have to be at the cost of someone else’s representation. If anything, these desires can lead a person to examine and realize something deeper about their representation, or better yet, their identity. For instance, Halloween gives some trans folk the freedom to express themselves uninhibitedly as they explore and express their interpretation of gender. These actions can be seen as desires from within, desires that society has forced people to push into the deepest crevices of their being. As a gay cis man, Halloween allows me to explore traditional notions of femininity and masculinity and transform them in a way that suits me. There’s nothing quite like complementing my cis-male body with fishnets. While fishnets are not solely a part of my Halloween celebration, there is something about the holiday, the “thinning of the veil”  that empowers me to make bold, courageous choices. 

If you take anything from this article, it’s to respect people’s celebrations, while also being able to discern between a valid celebration and one that invalidates an entire group of people. If a costume is solely based on a superficial interpretation of someone else’s culture, it is cultural appropriation. However, if a costume makes you think twice solely because you aren’t used to seeing someone covered head to toe in glitter, you should respect their choice and applaud their courage. We ought to respect people’s desires as long as they are coming from a place of truth. Desires from a place of truth are those that would free us from the binds of conformity and allow us to be our most genuine versions of ourselves. To live in this place of truth is to be courageous even when the whole world turns their back to us. Getting to this place is no easy task, and it requires some serious reflection and personal transformation. It all starts with just a little bit of love.

While some of us have more normative desires, others have been told that our desires, identities and modes of expression are not valid. Halloween is often painted as this spooky pagan holiday, but it should be seen as an occasion for love, respect, and expression. For those on the margins, Halloween’s sweetest treat might be to have some of what’s normally denied, accepted. 

Jorge Arredondo is a junior and member of the Duke Men’s Project leadership team.