I have tended to agree with you.......it seems as though, its become more of a time for girls to show off their "inner slut" and get away with it. Now if you try to dress up with a horror theme, you get the tlooks of what are you doing? You should be almost naked and gorgeous! Not HALloweenish! I myself, last year, went as a dark angel---It came out really cool and that is what my avatar is now.

This year, I'm doing a female version of Freddy Krueger, but not the costume from the store that is a super short and tight dress............I'm doing the black pants, and striped sweater----only exception, instead of doing the special effect makeup of scarring my entire face, I'm only doing half.........and that's because 1. I'm too lazy to do the whole thing, and 2. I have too much hair to keep back out of the liquid latex!

Here is a party that I'm going to this year. Its called Theater Bizarre and held in Detroit every year. It still holds the scariness of Halloween!!! The beginning of it gives you the premise of the party and the story that goes with it!

Over the last few hundred years, Halloween has evolved, reverted back, re-evolved, veered, changed, and been manipulated in every way possible. Over the last decade, Halloween has been pressed as more of an adult holiday than ever before. Logically, this would make Halloween costumes on the market more adult in nature.

Two of my favorite things in life are horror (goes with Halloween) and Las Vegas. I would like to take a moment to use the two of them in an analogy.

Las Vegas is known for changing direct on a whim. For a grouping of years, you will have a bunch of themed hotels go up (New York New York, Paris, Monte Carlo). Then, out of no where, you will start having a bunch of hotels that go up that are focused more on customer service that have nothing to do with an overall theme (Wynn, TI).

You will have trends in Las Vegas where many of the hotels start pushing that Las Vegas is a great place to take a family. They will press the fact that the kids can go on rides, visit the attractions at Circus Circus, or gaze in awe at white tigers and elaborate aquariums. A few years later, the kids are dropped for a campaign that says, "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas." Three years later, Las Vegas is for travlers. Two years later, Las Vegas is for luxury.

Essentially, Las Vegas keeps changing in an attempt to draw new patrons, and to bring old ones back who just want to see how things have changed. If you have not been to Las Vegas in two years, you have essentially missed a lifetime of change.

So to with Halloween. If the retailers keep changing the direction of the holiday every four to five years, you are invited to come back to the stores to buy more. You are brought in to see what is new, and expected to toss the old stuff that you had in favor of the new items that they have placed on the shelves.

Professionally, I am a freelance writer who focusses a lot of energy on the horror industry, and the retail industry. At Halloween, the twains shall meet.

This year, to point out, is a transition year. Over the last five or six years, the retail market has pressed Halloween as being an adult holiday. Whenever people start getting tired of the, "old," relation of Halloween, they pull back on their shopping. After a record year last year, this year is way way way down. In fact, a lot of analysts believe that this might be the worst retail Halloween in about seven to ten years.

While some might point to the economy, I would have to state that the numbers were way up last year when the economy was worse. People are just getting tired of the way that Halloween is being presented.

If we look at retail history, we will see a number of downturns in Halloween sales. In each of these instances (1968, 1973, 1980, 1988, 1993, 1999) we will find that the market has trended from Halloween being an adult holiday to a childrens holiday (or vice versa). This year is one of those down years, so I expect a major change next year.

Expect taht there will be a lot of retailers next year that will be pushing how Halloween is a major child holiday. Expect the number of child Halloween costumes to outnumber the adult ones about 20 to 1, if not more. Expect the retailers to start selling less scary decorations, and more fun-loving ones. Then, expect this to change back in a matter of 4-6 years.

Yes, I believe the traditional Halloween is disappearing. The stores are filled with WAY more Halloween costumes now, and lots of them adult sized, and the decorations are more elaborate. I think it's become another reason for adults to party and act stupid (like some NEED another reason!).

When I was a kid we could trick-or-treat as late as we wanted but these days kids only get a couple of hours, at least in the small town I'm from. It's hardly getting dark before they have to stop! We've become too overprotective of our kids and make them afraid of strangers and use that as an excuse not to let them trick-or-treat when the truth is that kids are more likely to be molested or kidnapped by their own family members! Too bad kids just can't enjoy childhood like us old folks did.

Unfortunately, you are correct.
I frequently ask myself, friends and family " Since when did Halloween become the one day out the year where your allowed to dress like a skank, and not be called one? "

I still like to dress scary :D

Oh well. You can't control everyone Pinky.