As October begins and Halloween season rolls around, everyone prepares for the ~spooky~ times ahead. Whether you prepare by binge-watching some "American Horror Story," have a handful of candy corn, or just hang out around the house all cozy in your dollar pair of spiderweb Target socks. Halloween is a time to celebrate the gore and creepy aspects we otherwise shun in our everyday lives. Yet sadly, upon investigating multiple sources for new Halloween decor for my room, I see an otherwise unpleasant change in the purpose of this scary holiday compared to years passed. From the lack of horror, skimpy costumes, and cultural appropriation, I don't know where to begin.

After some proper analysis, while browsing in the store, I have come to the conclusion that Halloween is suddenly a cute holiday now - not spooky - as it once was. Guts, blood, hatchets, and gore are all censored now within the sensitive metamorphosis our world has transformed into today. Halloween now is lighting pumpkin candles to air out any last essences of summer leftover in preparation of the last three -ber months to come; not one of creepy decor and scares as it was before.

While there is a lot of Halloween's presence in stores, it cannot be compared to the amount of fall harvest theme that now seems to be the staple. I'm looking for more Jack-o-lantern type of pumpkins, not an autumn earth tone one or a cornucopia in the last week of September. I want spiders, I want skulls, I want blood, and eyes and bleeding candles! I want ghosts, witches, and zombies to adorn my house. I do not want another stupid, plain, and utterly boring orange pumpkin jammed down my throat until turkey time. While we're at it, Christmas ornaments and Santa can wait too.

In history, Halloween used to be so much darker - and that's what I loved about it. Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, used to be a melancholy, macabre holiday in autumn, and actually began in pagan roots when spirits and multiple gods were celebrated and were recognized as real in certain religions. In order to appease evil spirits and ward them off from their homes and crops, offerings were made to keep them content and at bay. This holiday was never for the faint of heart and I don't quite understand why it is now.

Halloween is better than any other holiday to me, including Christmas, because it has allowed me to explore these areas that were otherwise taboo and shed light on them for everyone to experience. I'm a bio-major specifically with a concentration in pre-med, and dissection is a part of what I do. I love it and I am completely fascinated with how everything is put together on the inside of us so intricately. It's always awesome to see that celebrated positively within anatomy-themed decorations, for an example, that a lot of people find offensive or obtrusive.

I can already foresee this argument, and I'd like to address it now: I fully realize that there are children, and being part of the millennial generation, it's assumed if I had a child that I would try to hide all the gore and fright from them like we're seemingly doing today. But, I wouldn't. My mother exposed me to it, and I actually found my calling when looking at all of her skeleton Halloween decorations in the medical professional pathway of life. Halloween isn't cute - and it never has been. My mom wanted to make that clear to me, and Halloween is why I love the paranormal and horror genre in general.

But, beyond the classic, articulated horror flick I crave, I feel the only real gore or anything remotely scary you can find is at the gimmicky, overpriced haunted houses. You give them your soul in exchange for a scream at a loud bang or two for the thirty-minute duration you're there. Maybe a chainsaw to the face and a little fake, over-exaggerated and anatomically-incorrect looking ketchup blood splattered on the wall are about the only other factors I can actually say are truly terrifying in the haunted houses. The costumes are sometimes nicely done and the prosthetics are nice, I do give them and their latex work on their costumes credit where it is due.

So, when Halloween rolls around and you don't really like scary, then at least we have sexy, right? Don't even get me started here. Not that I am a prude in any way, but why are sexualizing Handmaiden's tale and Minions outfits? If you walk into the ladies section of the Halloween store, none of the costumes are even remotely anything beyond the cheapest piece of silk or are only cut for someone who is a size two. I see this especially in the little girl's sections - why are we sexualizing our children on Halloween? It's completely perverted to see a twelve-year-old in a skimpy red riding hood costume.

And, please. If you're thinking about black-facing to go as Shuri from Black Panther, buying a Day of the Dead costume, or the most vulgar Native American headdress to adorn your moccasins and fake tribal makeup, PLEASE remember that the costumes you wear are people's cultures. They're not a joke nor a costume to wear as certain makeups, outfits, and accessories are very sacred, symbolic, and spiritual to multiple to people in death and in life. Please do not culturally appropriate and decide on a costume like these if you are not that race and understand what you are doing.

Furthermore on this rant - the price tag.

I created three Halloween looks this year for my own party, and two other themed parties, for under $50 worth of materials and helped aid in the reduce, reuse, and recycle clothing movement in the process of heading down to my local thrift store. Instead of the cheap, flimsy satin that otherwise requires layers in order to stay warm (I don't know about you, but I'm not wearing fishnets under a napkin fabric at the end of October in Northeast Ohio). Please, if you have an idea for this Halloween, get crafty! I encourage you to get to creating your own costume, to which you can style to what you want. Save the average $40 you would spend at a costume pop up shop and find cheaper, even better-looking alternatives. And, in the process, help save a little piece of the environment!

Make this Halloween what it's supposed to be this year - fun, appropriate, and overall scary!