Why is Halloween suddenly so big in Britain? | Zoe Williams
It used to mean a few kids throwing bedsheets over their heads in exchange for sweets. Nowadays, any gathering between September and Christmas is an excuse for fancy dress
When a fella of 17 arrived at the house in a corset, some pointy ears, a lot of makeup and an alice band with a cat on it, it was only polite to ask what he was dressed as. He said he had come to the Halloween party as a sexy cat. Ah yes, that famous character from fiction, or maybe myth. Isn’t it tautologous, anyway? Aren’t all cats sexy? He was followed by another young fella in a tight black dress and a frilly apron. I didn’t even need to ask: a sexy maid.
My sister insists that young men have always liked cross-dressing, drawing on extensive experience – OK, her husband, who was so committed that he once shaved his legs for Halloween. I think of it as very gen Z, a sign of their liberation from the constraints of sex and gender.
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