Today is Reformation Day. A couple of years ago, I wrote a short piece on sex and the Reformation.
A bad cold kept me from last weekend’s party. Tonight’s class at church was preempted by Halloween, so I secluded myself at the library for much of the evening. On my way home, I stopped at a nearby convenience store. I live in a neighborhood in close proximity to a number of colleges, which means tonight the store was patronized by a number of nubile young women in revealing costumes. I found myself in line behind a fetching brunette dressed as Minnie Mouse. I struggled to hide my arousal.
Female modesty was highly prized in the Christian subculture in which I was raised. Girls were taught to not be “stumbling blocks” to young men by tempting them with revealing outfits. Long skirts and little hint of cleavage were the norm.
Fast forward to tonight, and I’m surrounded by girls in slutty costumes. Their sluttiness does have a pedigree. According to Suzanne Labarre:
Whence sexy costumes? “The historical precedent would be the sexy costumes at masquerade balls, which were wildly popular from the 18th and 19th century on,” says Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at FIT. “Respectable women would wear pantaloons or short skirts and milkmaid outfits when they went to costume parties. At the masquerade parties in London, you had costumes with a degree of body exposure. You also had artists’ balls–in Paris especially–where you had revealing costumes and some nudity.”
We’ve long had sexy costumes; it’s just that the boundaries of “sexiness” have changed. In The Masked Ball at the Opera, an 1873 oil painting by French impressionist Édouard Manet, women are depicted in disguises that show off their legs–a bold subversion of the social mores of the day. One even appears to be wearing a sailor’s outfit. “That would’ve been the equivalent of today’s sexy pirates,” Steele says. Back then, throwing on a costume, provocative or not, was a potent form of escapism. “Any time you’re allowed to wear a costume, you’re also allowed to engage in activities outside your normal behavior,” says Nancy Deihl, director of costume studies at NYU Steindhardt.
I recall Stephanie a few years ago saying she was planning on getting a sexy Little Bo Peep costume. I regret not seeing her in it.
Lutheran Guilt 