Dressing up as a teen mum for Halloween isn’t acceptable on any level

For the last few years, the numbers of socials hosted with themes that alienate and fetishise the working class have increased and with costumes to these socials now including a pregnant teen, a line of good taste and respect needs to be drawn.

If dressing up as a teen mother wasn’t offensive enough as it is, placing this new emphasis on Halloween costumes adds on element of fear and aversion to being a teen mother, which is not the case for so many. By reinforcing the idea that having a child at a younger age is negative, that this becomes a label that perpetuates stereotypes – like the idea that education and working is off the table once you’ve had a child.

The idea of labelling a woman, based on pregnancy is obscene, each mother is different, and trying to reduce a large group of women into one generalisation is extremely harmful.

Really?

As someone who was raised by an incredible single mother in my early years, I know that it wasn’t an easy thing for my mum to decide to do. It involved a lot of sacrifices on her part, and to have that made into a costume for people to take on and off is upsetting for so many. Having a child can be the making of some women, and to have that option scorned and mocked affects the well-being of women for whom parenthood might be the right choice.

It should be clear that by putting on gold hoop earrings and making it look as if you are pregnant, you are enforcing negative and classist stereotypes that harm a lot of people across society. Why should a young women having a child be something open to mockery from people?

For many, the title of ‘mum’ isn’t something that is put on and taken off on one night of the year, with the aim of going on a social or potentially scaring someone for a night. The trivialisation of the challenging situation of becoming a parent is is helpful to no-one.

Look at that zombeaver – unique, funny and non-offensive yaaass

Given the huge wealth of potential Halloween costumes available, from zombies and ghosts to Donald Trump, why would anyone feel like it would the best use of their time to taint this fun-filled holiday perpetuating inaccurate and negative stereotypes?

Kayleigh Thompson, a third year Psychology student  said “I feel like there is a stereotype of what you have to be to be a single parent and this kind of thing is just reinforcing that.”

In terms of costumes, there are so many ways to make costumes using  the stuff you can find lying around your uni house to wow your friends, wherever you choose to spend your Halloween. So putting a beach ball or other spherical object under your t-shirt and calling it a costume is not only offensive but with so many ways to make a stand out costume, where’s the imagination?