The New York Times, October 16, 2015

Sexy police officer. Sexy nurse. Sexy cat. Sexy angel. Sexy devil.

It’s time to start talking with your preteen or teenage daughter about her Halloween costume. Chances are, she has been plotting it out for weeks, if not longer — even though she may very well insist that she hasn’t spent one second thinking about it yet.

While boys can get away with putting on a sports jersey and claiming they’ve dressed as an athlete, girls must deal with entirely different guidelines. “You’re supposed to wear a sexy costume,” says Evelyn Benson, 16, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “You don’t even have to talk about it because everyone knows it.”

“Halloween is supposed to be about embracing the sinister, but when you are a girl, ‘sinister’ equals ‘sexual,’” points out Katie Cappiello, co-director and artistic director of the New York City-based theater program the Arts Effect. “It’s the one day when girls are expected to, and can actually justify, pushing the boundaries — but then they are punished for doing what they’re ‘supposed’ to do. It’s an impossible situation.”

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