With the excitement of Halloween right around the corner, the topic of costume choices is captivating students’ conversations. The murmurs of this costume craze is spreading around GC like wildfire, with popular culture as the fuel to the blaze.
When asking GC students and professors what they think people will dress as this year, many had some insightful answers that helped to shine a light on how pop culture is affecting people’s choices when deciding on a costume.
“I think a lot of people will dress as sirens because of the wet hair and the scale makeup trends.” said Emma Chambers, a sophomore liberal studies major.
The iridescent scale makeup trend, as well as the wet hair style that has been floating around TikTok, has given people the idea of dressing as sirens this year. The influence of pop culture’s fashion and makeup will have people singing siren songs this Halloween as they prepare their outfits to be these mythical creatures of the sea.
“I think that Barbie will dominate everything,” said Avery-Claire Galloway, a junior english major. “There are so many different Barbie outfits that people could dress as.”
With Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” recently released in theaters this year, it is no shock that there will be lots of Kens and Barbies making their appearance this Halloween. This popular film will have people dressing in their most fashionable and perfectly pink Barbie styles. The influence of this new movie in pop culture is likely to affect the decision making process for people as they are readying themselves to trick-or-treat.
“The Barbie movie was a cultural phenomenon,” said Jeffrey MacLachlan, an English professor at GC.
Nights of the Jack’s website contextualizes pop culture’s relationship to Halloween on its “How Has Pop Culture Changed Halloween?” page.
“In the past, Halloween costumes were always inspired by traditional characters like witches, ghosts, goblins, and vampires,” the page said. “But with the rise of pop culture, costumes have become more diverse and reflect current trends.”
Popular characters in things like movies, TV shows or books can impact people’s choices when deciding what they want to dress as for Halloween. Iconic figures or trends from the year can cause people to stray from the more traditional costumes, like ghosts and goblins. Popular culture has given Halloween more diversity, so people are more likely to dress as something like their favorite character from a TV show.
“I think we will see a lot of Barbies, superheroes of various persuasions and since it was Friday the 13th this year, there will be a lot more horror villains,” MacLachlan said.
With events like Friday the 13th and various new horror movies released, like “Insidious: The Red Door,” it is likely that we will see lots of horror villains swarming the streets on Halloween night. The impact of these significant events and films will inspire people to dress as these terrifying characters.
It is true too that “Barbie” has made a huge impact on our society’s pop culture. Barbies have been something that have been around since the 1950s, and with the new adaptation of the movie, people of various ages, races and genders are all coming together this Halloween to be various versions of Barbie.
The influence of these movements in pop culture is what will bring out the very best of this year’s captivating costume selections.
