Bloggers Eye Skimpy Halloween Garb

Blogophile is written by CBSNews.com's Melissa P. McNamara.

Halloween Goes Extreme

With Halloween just a week away, the mad rush for the perfect costume is well underway. And this year, the costumes themselves seem to be drawing a great deal of attention, both in the mainstream media and online. Heck, even some sociologists have been weighing in.

The New York Times is especially concerned about the state of Halloween costumes for women. The newspaper published both an op-ed and an article about the latest trend for women: costumes that "are more strip club than storybook." The article was one of the most talked about on NYTimes.com, and many bloggers were buzzing about it.

As the newspaper explains, costumes of questionable taste will be barely covering thousands of women who consider them escapist, harmless fun on Halloween. Whereas when men dress up as police officers, firefighters and soldiers, "they actually look like people in those professions," those same costumes for women are "so tight and low-cut they are better suited for popping out of a cake than outlasting an emergency," the newspaper explains.

A sociologist quoted in the New York Times piece believes that many women think that showing off their bodies "is a mark of independence and security and confidence."

But not all bloggers are buying this. "For the record, my daughter will be a princess this year," Jonah Goldberg writes in the National Standard's The Corner. "Last year she was a cowgirl. In the future she wants to be a 'doggy-doctor,' a cowgirl again, and a witch. She has plenty of ideas on the subject and feminism hasn't entered into any of them as yet."

Goldberg isn't alone. Other bloggers question whether there's really any big sociological issue at stake. A blogger at Bitin' the Big Apple says she was hardly thumbing her nose at "the patriarchical notions that have disparaged witches since the beginning of time" when she dressed as a scantily clad witch. "Au contraire. I was hoping the guys would dig me. And some whacked-out cultural messages put the notion in my head that sexing it up was the way to do that," she writes.

Yet, an article in the Arizona Republic notes that even costumes for children are growing more trashy these days. The newspaper reports that costumes marketed to children and teens are undoubtedly more suggestive, with names like "Transylvania Temptress," "Handy Candy," "Major Flirt," and "Red Velvet Devil Bride."

Some long for the good ol' days when a simple mask was well-suited for trick-or-treating. "Grown-up halloween is so lame. I just want to get a k-mart plastic monster mask and sprint door-to-door in an effort to fill a pillowcase with candy, like the holiday was intended to be celebrated," Brian Longtin writes at Two Points Collapsing.

Plus, whatever happened to creativity, Johanna at Comics Worth Reading asks. "The only place I have to wear a costume is work, anyway, and that puts a restriction on choices to what's considered "appropriate," she blogs. "Instead of purchasing something, whatever happened to ideas and creativity being the most important costume elements?"

And if you thought we were the only ones facing Halloween costume decisions, Yahoo's Buzz Index suggests pets will also be dressing up for the occasion. Pets rank fourth in queries for costume ideas, behind babies, adults and kids. This year's favorite dog costume? Yoda. Don't ask.

Library Images Go High-Tech

The Internet continues to change how we view things in both subtle and, sometimes, literal ways. The Los Angeles Public Library's Web site is proof of the latter.

For years, the library's photography curator and her team catalogued historical images of Los Angeles in relative obscurity. The nearly 3 million photos remained in the back rooms of the public library, and few had access to them since they were stored in cabinets in the library's dusty archives. Many didn't even know the photos existed. But, as the Los Angeles Times reports, the Internet has changed all that, fostering a digital archive of photos that has become one of the city's most popular sites. The site receives about 550,000 page views a month.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, the L.A. library has become one of the first in the U.S. to post portions of its vast collection — mostly historical L.A. photos — online, and mostly for free access. The Web site has become a historical treasure trove for those interested in the city's past, and perhaps offers a model that other cities could replicate.

The Web site's popularity has transformed the curator and her staff into historical decision-makers, since they must carefully choose images to add to the database. Today, that database includes about 70,000 photographs and it's growing by 250 to 300 images a week.

The site is winning rave reviews from bloggers. A blogger at Montecito Heights, Above The City calls it an "insanely cool collection of photographs," and especially enjoys the photos of the railway up to Mt. Washington way back in the early 1900s.

The library's Ansel Adams photos also draw many fans. The collection features 189 photos by the famous photographer, which were shot in Los Angeles around 1940. Thanks to the library's Web site, they've been rediscovered by many online, though they've been a part of the library's collection since the 1960s. Curbed says the "Ansel eye candy" includes "rarely scene photos from Adams of LA during war time showing everyday life in the City for a spread in an issue of Fortune magazine from 1941."

Bloggers say these photos are helping them better understand Los Angeles history. "This resource is one of the best ways we can reach our past in this City, and without the work Carolyn (the curator) and the library does on our behalf, we wouldn't have the understanding (as limited as it is) of where we came from and where we're going," a California blogger writes on Livejournal, echoing the opinion of many.

A Cross To Bear

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has appeared several times in public recently with a cross around her neck, and it's been riling up her enemies in the blogosphere. An image of the senator, from the chin down, wearing a black suit with a cross dangling from her neck, has been making its away around various blogs this past week.

While the senator is, in fact, religious — Ben Smith of The New York Daily News points out that Clinton's faith has been part of her public character since she taught Sunday school as the first lady of Arkansas and was an active member of a Washington church as first lady — many bloggers doubt her religious sincerity.

Many say Clinton's cross is merely a political accessory. "I guess it's only a matter of time before she rediscovers her faith-based roots sometime before election day, 2008," Thomas at American Papist blogs.

Russell Shaw writes at The Huffington Post that he does not "begrudge anyone's right to believe in what they believe in" but wonders "how much of Hillary's cross-wearing is consultant-driven, as opposed to driven more by belief."

"I also happen to wonder how this symbolic display of her faith squares with the almost irrefutable fact that she ignored her husband's multiple adulterous episodes in her quest to be close to power- and then gain some for herself," Shaw adds.

Others say that Clinton is politically tone-deaf since she should've been aware that wearing a cross at public events would be criticized by her political foes. "And that's what I worry about for 2008: that she's going to win the Democratic nomination and lose in a landslide, because she just can't stop making easily avoidable mistakes like this," Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog writes.

Job Advice: What Not To Do

It's undoubtedly a hard time for job applicants. With the click of a button, anyone can apply for a job via e-mail, so how do you make your application stand out from the rest? Well, Aleksey Vayner learned the hard way about what not to do.

When he sent along a video with his investment-banking job application to UBS, it's unlikely the Yale senior anticipated it would end up appearing on television, in newspapers such as the New York Times, and nearly everywhere else online. But after someone at UBS forwarded the video to YouTube, it has spread like wildfire, and has become widely mocked for its arrogance.

The video, titled "Impossible is nothing," includes shots of Vayner boxing, working out at the gym, and even ballroom dancing, all while Vayner discusses the meaning of success in his pinstriped suit. Not only was the video mocked, but others questioned some of his claims in his résumé, including that he ran his own charity. The blog IvyGate has been tracking Vayner's every digital move.

Needless to say, Vayner told the New York Times, "this has been an extremely stressful time." He told the newspaper he took a leave of absence from Yale once the video became an online sensation.

Many are starting to feel sorry for him. "Part of me feels bad for the guy. He obviously didn't show this video to real friends or mentors before sending this out because they would have decried, 'Pleazzz don't!,' " a blogger at Back In Skinny Jeans writes.

Others say it was partly Vayner's own fault. "I kind of feel sorry for the guy but being an habitual liar in the digital age is not too smart," a blogger at Independent Sources writes, echoing the opinion of many bloggers.

Jack at Random Thoughts agrees it's a cautionary tale. "There are many life lessons to be learned here. In the information age we live in a time in which information can live forever. The video and story surrounding this man is not going to disappear," he writes.

But some bloggers say the extreme measure Vayner went to is merely a reflection on the competitive job market young grads face. "This is an extremely tongue in cheek video about the unrealistic expectation of Employers and the pressure this brings on job seekers," a blogger at The Codicil writes. "You are right Aleksey Vayner, they don't want employees, they are looking for supermen. Come on Wall Street, the laugh is on you."

But perhaps all is not lost for Vayner, Matthew Ingram suggests. "Maybe investment banking isn't ready for Aleksey, but there's a spot for him somewhere on reality TV, I guarantee," Ingram blogs.

Blogophile RSS Feed
By Melissa McNamara