University of Colorado Banning Controversial Halloween Outfits

Telegraph – University students in America have been told not to wear “offensive” halloween costumes including cowboys, indians and anything involving a sombrero. Students at the University of Colorado Boulder have also been told to avoid “white trash” costumes and anything that portrays a particular culture as “over-sexualised” – which the university says includes dressing up as a geisha or a “squaw” (indigenous woman).

They are also asked not to host parties with offensive themes including those with “ghetto” or “hillbilly” themes or those associated with “crime or sex work.”

Christina Gonzales, the dean of students, wrote: “Making the choice to dress up as someone from another culture, either with the intention of being humorous or without the intention of being disrespectful, can lead to inaccurate and hurtful portrayals of other people’s cultures.

People have also chosen costumes that portray particular cultural identities as overly sexualised, such as geishas, “squaws,” or stereotypical, such as cowboys and Indians.

Additionally some students have hosted offensively-themed parties that reinforce negative representations of cultures as being associated with poverty (“ghetto” or “white trash/hillbilly”), crime or sex work.

This article gives me the perfect opportunity to plug my friend and my upcoming Halloween costumes. Maybe my best costume yet, but also perhaps the most offensive. The thing is its kind of a lot more offensive than going as a cowboy or a hillbilly and yet Boulder administrators seemed to have let these costumes slip for some reason. I will be getting piss drunk next weekend and I will be going out as Helen Keller. I'm talking full tilt, blind, deaf, and drunk. I'm going to yell in a deaf persons voice while colliding with people/objects and possibly mistakingly letting my blind hands grab a slutty cop's ass. Then there is my friend.... oh what an idea this is. He will be rollin' around UMass lifelessly in a wheelchair as everyones favorite handicapped brainiac, Stephen Hawking. This will be a difficult act and I'm quite sure this will be seen as a bit more offensive than being a hot indian, but heck they didn't ban the handicapped so we're good!