Why Halloween is depressing
POSTED BY: MAL4PREZ
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 06:32
VIEWED: 15515
PAGE 5 of 16
Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
I dig Halloween. An excuse to indulge in some sugar - and lots of fun costumes. It really doesn't hold any significance for me beyond that - but it's fun and I like it.
Im dressed as Mal right now, as a matter of fact...
WE DEMAND PICS.
Oh wait, actually no, that might endanger your personal security. WE DEMAND STICK FIGURE DRAWINGS OF THIS EVENT.
Eh, Ive posted my pic before, I don't mind. Its not a great costume anyway - I just realized that I had enough elements to pull off a "close enough" version, and... here I am.
I need to clean my mirror....
"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"
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Hey! You're young enuf to Be Mal when the series picks up again!
Get an agent, quick!
=================:>
A man's gotta know his Imitations.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:
Hey! You're young enuf to Be Mal when the series picks up again!
Get an agent, quick!
=================:>
A man's gotta know his Imitations.
Im actually only a couple years younger than our Cap'n.
What can I say, I age well.
"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"
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Quote:
Originally posted by MAL4PREZ:
I enjoy dressing up, as do many of my students and co-workers. There's a few other teachers with long histories of excellent costumes, from Indiana Jones to Darth Vader to Jack Sparrow. My first year of teaching I was Princess Leia of Star Wars with the funny side buns and white dress. My second year I did Cher of the 60s: long black hair, overdone make-up, fake lashes, and a goofy 60s jumpsuit.
Since then... not so much.
I cannot find an interesting female sci-fi/whatever character to dress up as that isn't totally inappropriate for a woman who doesn't need to present herself as a sexpot. WTH? I think of all my favorite movies... nope. It's all skintight and revealing. Not what I need to be wearing in front of teenagers.
A few days ago I thought - hey, what about something from a kids story, like little red riding hood? Get a red cape and a basket to carry, I've got a flowery girlish dress... until I just did a google search for fairy tale female characters and it was all anime sexpots.
What the f is wrong with this world? Can women exist in fiction these days without being all sexed up? Even Joss has fallen - look at the ridiculous posters for the Avengers, with Scarlet Johansson presented as all T&A.
/rant
Anyone got ideas?
Good luck with that M....
Where I work, if it isn't a joke costume it's a slut costume. That remains the same at any age. I'm glad I don't have a daughter of Halloween age today because we'd be battling right now.
Go to ANY big box store and look at the pictures of the girls on the costumes. Enough makeup to make a clown jealous...
Shit's just getting really weird now.
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Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
So celebrating Thanksgiving because some Americans you know expect you to is okay, but celebrating Halloween because some of your countrymen saw it on television and thought it looked cool is just uncalled for.
It is apparent that you basically don't like Halloween not because it's American but because it's popular, and populism is the realm of the vulgar audience. Yet ultimately you are objecting to giving candy to children and calling it cultural victimisation.
Meanwhile, I'm going to gobble down a shit-ton of sugar and somehow carry it on my 5'5" 125 pound frame. Then I'm going to watch some friggin' GHOSTBUSTERS, and maybe scare the piss out of some kids with a remote controlled helicopter.
It's going to be pretty good.
Yeah, you don't get it.
Revel in your cultural imperialism by all means. Empathy seems to be pretty difficult for you to manage.
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Quote:
Yeah, you don't get it.
Revel in your cultural imperialism by all means. Empathy seems to be pretty difficult for you to manage.
You just accused me for a second time of cultural imperialism - a large part of why I have zero empathy right now and in itself mindboggling considering my usual opinion of America - that YOUR OWN PEOPLE HAVE CHOSEN.
I'm not going to be sympathetic or feel guilty that you're upset that people around you are choosing to have FUN. I'm just not. That is a ridiculous expectation, and I do not apologize.
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Lemme guess ...
People having fun is not the objection.
People adopting US customs in lieu of their own is felt as a loss.
Very upsetting when one loves-respects her own culture.
My refusal to hear-understand the hurt was like an insult.
======================
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. ~Paul Simon
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I get what you're trying to say Magons...
There's a guy in chat occaisionally who is from Bulgaria. His favorite TV show is "The Big Bang Theory"
I had no idea they got that in Bulgaria, but they do.
The internet really really has made the world a much smaller place. If you want entertainment THAT'S WHERE EVERYONE GOES! That and a generation or twelve of subtle cultural representations in movies and music...Unfortunately, it was bound to happen, but I personally did not expect it this soon, and I firmly believe most Americans have NO CLUE how we are affecting the rest of the world.
I'm sure a lot of Christians would deny that they want the rest of the world doing their holidays, but I know that a lot would secretly revel in the "superiority" of it all. It makes me kind of sick that Americans ( and lets face it- companies EVERYWHERE LOOOOVE how commercialized we are) are soo inadvertently messing with others cultures, but people get bored with their own stuffs and I think that's natural. It's not like we're putting a gun to anyone's head and making them do it anyways... Who knows- in 50 years maybe South African culture will take the world by storm? Polynesian? If we haven' wrecked it completely by then, I mean...
Halloween always was a little too much "glamorizing the dark side" for me, but hubbs loves it. I tell him he's welcome to decorate, but don't expect me to do any of that. We're both fine with.... whatever.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Oonjerah:
Lemme guess ...
People having fun is not the objection.
People adopting US customs in lieu of their own is felt as a loss.
Very upsetting when one loves-respects her own culture.
Okay then. If Magons comes back and tells me what specifically Australians did for Halloween before America started forcing their children to trick or treat against their will, I'll concede that point and take it all back.
But I my impression is that there was no celebration prior to this, and so this new tradition happens to be filling a spot that was previously empty. It is not as far as I know replacing or disrespecting any existing cultural tradition.
Until I have this clarification, I can only assume Magons is looking for people to acknowledge her cultural superiority and mourn with her over the foolishness of television zombies of her country acting like those awful American philistines. How lamentable. Unfortunately, I live by the belief system that no culture is inherently better or preferable to any other culture, and I happen to like Halloween. I also am not going to take the blame for Magons' neighbors deciding of their own volition that they want to celebrate Halloween "American" style just because Magons dislikes the holiday for whatever reason.
Nor am I a "CULTURAL IMPERIALIST" for saying that I think her argument is unsound and fallacious and explaining why.
It's basically a reverse bandwagon fallacy and also a genetic fallacy: saying that something is wrong or bad because it has become popular and also because where the idea originated from. The goodness or badness of a practice or idea is completely unrelated to it's popularity or origin.
If Magons dislikes Halloween because other people in her country are celebrating it, she is entitled to that, but it is a matter of personal preference and opinion as opposed to some sort of WRONG perpetuated against her and Australia.
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Said what I needed to say as clearly as possible. not going to say the same thing over again so Byte can come back with some bitchy response. You either get the objection to feeling like American culture is taking over your own, or you don't.. Believe me when I say, my sentiments are shared by many citizens of the world.
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