Slutty Nurse

[Steven Hunley]

Slutty Nurse
by
Steven Hunley

Halloween is coming up and I notice a trend going on here. The costume catalogues are hitting my mailbox by the dozens. Men, I have already figured out since I’m a man don’t bother me at all, it’s the women’s costumes that concern me. A woman can be a nurse, or a teacher, or a cop or a figure from history. But she has to be a slutty nurse, a slutty teacher, or a slutty copper. She can be Martha Washington but it has to be Slutty Martha. She can be Marie Antoinette but a slutty Marie Antoinette. She can be Cinderella but only if it’s Slutty Cinderella. What’s to be made of all this?

Seems, statistically anyway that Halloween is the biggest holiday next to Christmas. Sorry Lord, but after all, it’s your birthday, not theirs, and this is one of those chances for people to really be themselves. So the women can be whatever they like, for one evening of debauchery. After all, it’s not them, it’s the character. It’s a chance for self-expression, expression of the darker side of their personalities. It’s their heart of darkness, their Conrad side that wants out, not their Sunday reverent side. The reverent side gets shown once a week on Sundays, while the Conrad side only shown once a year, so you can’t blame them.

A man can be a vampire, but he’s not required to be a slutty one. He can be continental, well-dressed, have an accent, fake blood on his lips, but never slutty. Bella Lugosi was a snappy dresser, never slutty. A man can be Wolfman-hairy, but not slutty, as ungroomed as he likes, but never slutty. Are the costumers saying that men just can’t be slutty?

I believe they are. After all, men and dictionary publishers just don’t apply the word to men. If there’s a word for a man-slut they have no idea what it is.

So we have this super holiday where children can be anything they like for a night and receive candy from the neighbors who don’t even know them. Who could top that for popularity? Not even a Deity.

The real question is: Why are women allowed this voyage into the world of slutty, and men are not? Who’s idea was this anyway? The costumers, or the women patrons who demanded the costumes take this aspect? And how does it affect the younger women making their selections from the catalogues? And lastly ladies, what do your daughters make of this? Have a woman-to-woman talk and find out.

[Eman Resu]

Your whole premise is faulty - how else would today's modern woman showcase her multiplicity of repulsive tattoos?

[AuntShecky]

I agree. As an observer of the Zeitgeist (how's that for a high-brow word?), I noticed over the past couple of decades that so-called "adults" have appropriated a holiday originally designed for children. (By the bye, our American "traditional" Halloween is less than a century old--its alleged "ancient" roots in Celtic mythology, Samhain, and the like don't go all that deep.) Seeing grownups prancing around in costume on Halloween confirms my fear that our nation is under the spell of juvenility. Each passing day we are becoming more immature and stupider; we're also greedier and more self-absorbed, just like kids.

At the same time, we expect our kids, especially little girls, to grow up faster. There is much sociological and pop culture documentation of the "hypersexualization" of girls, in age-inappropriate, provocative fashion, in toys (dolls), in music and entertainment, and in social interactions. It's a very unhealthy trend. Frankly, it's sick.

I second your opinion about the word "slut" and its adjectival form, "slutty." I thought our culture had moved past gender stereotyping, that we had finally stopped considering women as objects. Of course, I was wrong-- and it dismays me no end that some young women actually encourage it, rationalizing it as some kind of "sexual empowerment" or something.

You're absolutely right, Steve, in stating that there is no male equivalent to "slut," except for an archaic term that begins with "w" and ends with "-monger." Meanwhile, it's seems perfectly acceptable to describe various women as the classic "b" word and its rhyming cousin,"witch;" worse is the verboten "c" word that really is not the equivalent of the different "c" word applied to a certain anatomical part of a male. If you made an informal list, you'd find the distaff (itself a biased word) column would have more epithets than that of the male: "harridan," "diva" (it's not a honorific, it's a put-down),shrew,strumpet, tart, matronly, etc. You could include the condescending endearments as well: honey, babe, sweetie,etc. not to mention certain descriptives exclusively bestowed upon females: bevy, buxom, shapely, perky, statuesque, svelte, vivacious, well-endowed, willowy etc.

I live for the day when I hear a male morning talk show host described as "pert."

[Eman Resu]

not to mention certain descriptives exclusively bestowed upon females: bevy, buxom, shapely, perky, statuesque, svelte, vivacious, well-endowed, willowy etc.



So then a bevy of quail is made up exclusively of hens; a well-endowed man is actually a female, and all those svelte male runners and athletes

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22he%27s%20svelte%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&source=hp#channel=np&q=%22he+is+svelte%22&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&safe=off

are transgendered? I did not know that.

[Buh4Bee]

This is a good observation about the state of things. I can't say that I really have an opinion about women slutting themselves up for Halloween. I would agree that for some women it is a kind of permissible time to dress like a sex-kitten or whatever it is they see in the costume magazines. Then again as Auntie pointed out, it seems that over the decades there are no standards for anything anymore. Are women being "sexualized" by these companies- who knows, but as long as the there are women or others buying the costumes- they will be sold. (Isn't that how it works?) Are women contributing to this objectifying of themselves? In my opinion, I think the younger generations just don't care, because they have no connection to the history of the modern woman's struggle. Simply put by my husband, it is the mating ritual of the young. Girls slut it up and dudes go crazy- it's all for attention.

[Steven Hunley]

When I read these replies I quickly realize I have two mature educated opinions tendered by the female gender. It was better and much more deeply responsive than I imagined.

Let's keep this going Lit Nutters- and make it good to the last drop.

[Steven Hunley]

O.K. Litnetters, it's that time of year again!

[Francis Meadows]

I think the question really is: are the slutty dresses a consequence of a general contemporary conception regarding women, or are they rather the product of the concept Halloween?

I tend towards the latter. Halloween is a kind of holiday that focusses on the darker side of human kind and the result is, amongst others, an overdose of slutty looking dresses for the girls. Many of the typical Halloween characters for men are however also not exactly gentleman. I have seen few boys dress up as a Manhattan banker or as Picasso for Halloween. Rather Frankenstein with a tuxedo that is in rags or Freddy Krueger who even has his face in rags... Not exactly refined men, rather what one would call "white trash", which could well be the male equivalent of slutty.

In the end, on Halloween even the most innocent thing, a doll, turns into Chucky.

That being said, when looking beyond the mere Halloween commercial craze, I do not have the impression that women playing in horror movies or playing psycho's are necessarily portraited as slutty. Was not much slutty about Carrie in my humble opinion. Nor do Darlene Snell or Helen Pierce, who gradually reveal themselves worse psycho's than the male machos in Ozark, strike me as sluts.

Just my 5 cents obviously.

Francis

[Steven Hunley]

That five cents was definitely worth a quarter. and this, "Halloween is a kind of holiday that focusses on the darker side of human kind and the result is, amongst others, an overdose of slutty looking dresses for the girls."

I hadn't thought of that. Certainly sluttyness is easier to depict visually than acumen or bearing. And it gets attention, something all costumes require.