Halloween is a great opportunity for people to break social norms in society. Those that choose to dress up are viewed as socially accepted in society for that day. Any kind of dressing up in a costume any other day in society is deemed socially unaccepted or known as a negative informal sanction. What about what people wear for Halloween? If a little girl wants to be firefighter or power ranger it is socially accepted for Halloween. If a little boy wants to dress as a princess or a witch, does society accept that social norm on Halloween? It really depends on the person.
Some adults think teenagers and older middle school age kids are breaking social norms of Halloween if they go and trick or treating. Dressing in a costume to have a party or to hand out candy is social accepted as a positive informal sanction; however, if they go trick or treating then in some cases it becomes negative informal sanction. What is the correct social norm for teenagers? As for costumes for teenagers, social norms for boys and girls are completely different. Girls are ok to dress in either masculine or feminine style of costume. Society accepts girls then as a positive informal sanction. Another aspect of girls costumes on Halloween is how a costume that is consider "sexy" or "revealing" for girls is considered okay for Halloween. Society grants it a positive informal sanction; however any other day a girl dresses "sexy" or "revealing" its consider a negative formal and informal sanction. Halloween creates a double standard for girls.
What about teenage boys and Halloween costume. From my observation teenage boys are less likely to dress up for Halloween than girls are. Either boys think its uncool to dress up or society has engrained that boys don't dress up for Hallow after a certain age. Now don't get me wrong their are teenage boys that will still dress up for Halloween but for the most part it seems that they don't. What costume is consider a social norm for boys? I would say mainly anything that is deemed "masculine" by societies standards. Of course if a teenage boy wants to dress more feminine for Halloween society grants it a positive informal sanction. The boy is not violating any social norms for dressing more feminine for Halloween. Its accepted. Sure there will be some people that will give it a negative informal sanction but the majority of people accept boys dressing more feminine on Halloween socially acceptable.
This brings me to my final point on social norms for Halloween, adults. This was my first Halloween as Harper in society. Finding a moment to be myself and having confidence to go in public as Harper has been incredibly. I violate the social norms of every day society for being Harper. I get looks if I dress more feminine in public but thats who I am now. Halloween this year allowed me to be me for the first time. I was always scared to be in public dressed as a woman or in a feminine costume because people might find out who I really was. I would be socially an outcast. Negative formal and informal sanctions would be imposed on me. That only would create a negative self image of myself. I did what most did, just hid. There was one Halloween that my wife (girlfriend at the time) dressed me as punk rock mini mouse. She did my make up and lent me some of her clothes for my costume. We went out into public for Halloween night to a few bars and it was a fantastic time. I had so much fun being a woman in public. I got several disapproval looks at the bars but at the same time most accepted how I was dressed as a positive informal sanction. That was the only Halloween that I was able to truly be me. Fast forward to this years Halloween and I finally was able go into public as Harper, as a woman. I dressed as a disney princess with my daughter who also was a disney princess. I looked so beautiful in my princess dress. A dream come true.
Trick or treating with kids as Harper was fun. I was socially accepted because it was Halloween. There was no violation of social norms. This was my chance to be me and be free from the strains of society. There were a few looks from children wondering what gender I might be. They stared for a while but that is expected. Not everyone will give a positive informal sanction for me, Harper, dressing as a disney princess. For me it was such a great experience to be be free to be who I have wanted to be for so long. I broke the social norm on a day social norms can be broken. Its one of the first steps on a long journey to be accepted in society as Harper. For now I mark Halloween as a success on social norms. For others they might have experienced the same thing I did or may have not. It's a fun day to break social norms and people might give you a weird look but the next day they think, oh that was just for Halloween. For me its just the beginning of breaking social norms to be Harper.