All Hallows’ Eve is almost upon us and busy-bodies everywhere are sharpening their knives ahead of the inevitable annual costume scandal. For ordinary party-goers, there is reason to be fearful. Pick the wrong outfit and the consequences – getting fired, kicked out of university, ending up on the front page of a national newspaper – might be with you for the rest of your life.
Thankfully, the National Union of Students has stepped in to help. Urging every reveller to ‘check and double-check their costume’, the NUS has published an updated set of guidelines on how to be woke-macabre.
‘Halloween should be fun and most of us love it’, says the NUS. ‘But sometimes, there can be detrimental stereotypes hidden behind a costume’.
Scouring over the NUS’s rules, we can find the usual no-goes: racism (Canadian leaders take note), homophobia, sexism and transphobia (goodbye Norman Bates and Frank-N-Furter). But there is also a new addition to watch out for: ‘ableism’ or ‘discrimination against disabled people’.
This, of course, is a reasonable request and it’s right that disabled people aren’t discriminated against at Halloween as at any other time.
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