Halloween And Boystown

I LOVE Halloween. Seriously, it's just a great holiday. Part of it is that it signifies the end of my yearly sanity cycle (I go a bit loopy during the Winter). Part of it is the memories I have from childhood and trick-or-treating. But the biggest part is the opportunity to let loose and express yourself in ways that are normally not socially accepted. Well, sort of. Apparently, there is still a silent code for what's acceptable in the gay community.

There is a yearly parade here in Chicago's Boystown that celebrates Halloween. They block off about half as much street space as they do for Pride and allow anyone that wants to parade up and down Halsted in whatever costume they've devised for the year. If you've never experienced what amounts to a gay-oriented costume party, there are a few rules you must know (I didn't know them last year, so I failed):

1. Even though it is most likely in the 30's, you must show as much skin as possible. The release of 300 last year offered many of the gays the perfect opportunity to subscribe to rule #1
2. If you aren't going to show skin, you must do drag. Good drag, scag drag, whatever-drag, you gotta do it.
3. If you aren't going to do 1 or 2, you must go as something absolutely absurd, most likely with some sort of phallic reference. Example: A Franzia box complete with spigot (you can guess where that was placed).
4. Never, ever try something new or ironic or just outside of the above rules.

Like I said, I did not know the rules last year. I dressed up as a flash back to my quasi-goth days in high school, but I took it a few steps further. I paled my face with some very light face paint blended well, then added as much black as possible: eyeliner, lipstick, nail polish, boots, long skirt, t-shirt, accessories. All the way. This, as I learned, was simply unacceptable. The whole evening, I received blatant stares from throngs of men in thongs and wings. People openly criticized my outfit, as if this were something I would have worn on a normal evening. The GiBLeTs forgot that it was Halloween, even though they themselves were wearing some contrived costume.

So yeah, I'm a little bitter about that. However, having been a bit of an "individualist" in high school, I let it all roll off my back. At least, I thought I did. This year, I didn't even think about a costume. I've done no shopping and no planning, and one of my favorite holidays of the year is tomorrow! I originally attributed that to being really busy this year, but as I thought about it, I think I let those bitchy people get to me. And that is absolutely not me. So I have to correct that, and I have one day and a limited budget to pull it off.

I have one evening to figure out what to wear, and it's gotta be good. I LOVE Halloween, and I refuse to let some tragic, tired bitches ruin it for me.