Yes, Halloween is fun. But even fun has its limits.
Following his recent death, hundreds of people this year are dressing up as Liam Payne for Halloween; taking a traumatic event and turning it into a joke. There are many other examples of these ignorant costume ideas that are hurtful to people whose cultures or lives are directly connected to whatever “costume” is donned on this October 31st.
Liam Payne’s death made headlines around the world as he was a very important member of one of the most popular boy bands of this generation: One Direction. Many speculations have arisen over how he could have fallen out of the third story building in Buenos Aires, Argentina. High levels of drugs were found in his system after his sad death, leading people to connect his death to the over consumption of drugs.
This heart wrenching truth has affected millions of fans across the globe, but especially Liam’s family, girlfriend, and prior bandmates. To them, Liam’s passing isn’t some joke to exploit on Halloween, but a moment that has ripped away a loved one forever.
“I wish I got the chance to say goodbye and tell you one more time how much I loved you,” past bandmate Louis Tomlinson said in his message to Liam after his death.
Just like Liam Payne, another controversial costume is being worn this year following the massive popularity of season two of the show “Monsters”: The Menendez brothers. Turning the life altering trajectory of these brother’s lives into a silly costume is inconsiderate and unacceptable.
People are posting videos online being dressed up as Lyle and Eric—wearing polos and holding tennis rackets behind sounds from the show. The fact that people are taking such a gut wrenching incident and turning it into a costume is honestly disgusting. The reason behind their imprisonment was scary, the violence was scary, the injustice was scary, but a “Menendez brother costume” should not be worn on the supposed “scariest night of the year.”
To the victims of Sean John Combs, otherwise known as “Diddy,” the hundreds of Diddy costumes this year so far are insensitive to the immense trauma that countless people went through because of him. People should not be glorifying a rapist no matter what the occasion is.
Pop culture has ruined people’s ability to be considerate towards others. This year, so many costumes are based solely around the popularity of a figure in mainstream media. People are disregarding the facts just to wear a costume once. People should not be turning someone else’s pain into a way for them to pose for a few pictures on Instagram.
All of these costumes are just a few of the disrespectful ways people should not be dressing up as for Halloween. This holiday is supposed to be thrilling and fun. It isn’t supposed to utilize the trauma of another person or people just so that someone can dress up. Be a witch or a vampire—or a bottle of Ketchup if you really want to. Anything other than a costume of controversy.