Know what I noticed among this year's trick-or-treaters?

[Orrex]

Substantially fewer girls dressed as hookers.

I'm not kidding. In recent years I've been disturbed by the onslaught of tween-age (and younger) girls dressed in outfits that Christina Aguilera would likely have found too raunchy for a photoshoot.

And right behind them were the proud parents, ushering their ill-clad daughters to our door. "Trick" or treat indeed.


But this year? Not so much. Lots of witches and princesses and fairies, but also quite a few girls dressed as ninjas and at least one dressed as a football player.

To what might we attribute this apparent shift?

[AsahinaKimi]

1. had one little girl dressed

As a mermaid. She kept flopping over.. tail was too big. Poor thing. I gave her two mars bars.

[madinmaryland]

2. Probably attributable to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

At least the one girl!

[woo me with science]

3. Ours were remarkably traditional.

Three witches, a fairy princess, a regular princess, a couple of ninjas, Thomas the Tank Engine, a Star Wars character, a football player, one un-costumed teenager, and a ballerina. That's all I can remember offhand.

[mtowngman]

4. We had a lot more trick or treaters this year

all little kids and no hookers. Three even had unicef boxes, I haven't seen that in a long time.

[LeftyMom]

5. I only got one. She was Goldilocks. A skeleton walked by but didn't stop,

his parents were just taking him to houses they knew. Both were toddlers, fwiw. It's only *:00 here though, so I might still have a few older kids show up.

[applegrove]

6. When mom stands behind the kids with a cigarette and a pillowcase

of her own do you have to fill it with candy? I did. I felt kinda sorry for her. Probably because she was a smoker and I just quit smoking a year and a bit ago.

[Iggo]

10. I give candy to anyone who comes to the door and says trick-or-treat.

High-school seniors, college kids, and yes even moms and dads.

[applegrove]

11. That's what I did.

[flvegan]

7. It's DU, so I credit Obama for this shift.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. I didn't see any, either.

That may have been because it's pretty cold this evening (only about 40), which would tend to put the damper on hooker costumes; but the costumes were pretty normal (princesses, witches, etc.).

[Iggo]

9. It's warm here in SoCal. 77 degrees @ 8:30.

Even so, no baby hookers. Closest I had was a female high-schooler in a pirate-type costume. Nothing too risque. Just blouse off-the-shoulder, no cleavage. And yeah, lots of princesses, vampires, and killer bees.

Edited To Add: I had one teenage girl show up wearing jeans and a flannel. I said, "No costume?" She said, "I'm Bella from Twilight." Extra points for minimalist creativity.

[Kickin_Donkey]

12. Were they really dressed as hookers, or were they just trying to ...

emulate skimpily-clad teen pop stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, etc.?

If those in the past were just Britney wannabes, I can see why there would be a shift -- there haven't been too many teen pop sensations lately. (Britney and her generation are in their mid/late-20s and dropping babies.)

Except for maybe Taylor Swift, which would explain the excess of princesses this year (a la Swift's music video).

[ThomCat]

13. I saw a lot more MEN in skimpy costumes this year.

A lot fewer Women were showing lots of skin.

Given that guys have a hell of a lot more choices in styles and types of Halloween costumes, they have to choose to dress skimpy and search for those tiny costumes. It isn't like with women's costumes where skimpy is the default. Women have to search hard to find a good costume that isn't skimpy, trashy, or deliberately trying to be exaggeratedly sexy.

I thought it was interesting and worth noting that more guys are going out of their way to wear less instead of wearing fairly generic costumes that cover them up. I also found it heartening that women were not giving in to whatever corporate designer it is that decides that commercial costumes for women and girls should be skimpy.

[Skittles]

15. where do you live

I.....need to know :7

[ThomCat]

21. New York City.

:)

[elocs]

14. Had no trick-or-treaters this year. Bummer. Now I have to eat all that candy I bought.

:-( :bounce:

[old mark]

16. How sad for you......

:)

mark

[MorningGlow]

17. Good point--same trend here

Got large phalanxes of teens later in the evening, and the girls were usually all dressed alike and fairly conservatively (one group came as spies, all in black turtlenecks and black pants, another bunch came as hippies, etc.) Not sure why, though.

I was more disturbed by the tween girls, many of whom wore sparkly dresses and carried silver-spangled phalluses. It took me a while to figure out they were dressed as Hannah Montana and the phalluses were microphones. :shrug:

[MineralMan]

18. Ha! That's just what they told you.

Little do you know...

[PassingFair]

19. The ECONOMY. It costs a lot of money to look that cheap.

In year's past, we would just fork out the
50 bucks and hardly give a crap what it was.

This year, my 14-year old had to create her
own costume....and so did most of her friends.

[Odin2005]

20. I agree with Kickin' Donkey, less people copying Britney.

But I have seen a lot of tweens dressing as Miley Cyrus! :scared:

[glowing]

22. My son wanted to be a police man.. It cost a Dollar to outfit him from the dollar store.

It was the only place I could think of that had the "police pack" with a little badge and fake gun and all. Other than that, pants and a blue shirt. The cops thought he was great.. he got a kick out of them all talking to him.. and other adults saying "don't arrest me officer".. very easy to do, and he was pleased as punch.