What Mean Girls taught me about Halloween

Karen: Why are you dressed so scary?
Cady: It’s Halloween!

Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies. There– I said it! Hilariously written and directed, it stars a then-teen ‘It Girl’ Lindsay Ho-Han (pre-public deterioration) and has amazing comedic supporting roles by Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, The Time-Traveler’s Wife), Lacey Chabert (Party of Five), Lizzy Caplan (Freaks and Geeks, True Blood), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia), Neil Flynn (Scrubs), Amy Poehler (Upright Citizens Brigade, SNL) and– the one and only — Tina Fey.

Fey, who also wrote the script, touched on an amazingly accurate unwritten rule of “Girl World” about Halloween:  “In the real world, Halloween is a night when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In “Girl World”, Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. Unfortunately, no one told me about the slut rule.”

I’ll go ahead and say that in some ends of pop culture, this rule isn’t just for high school. Don’t believe me? Go to any state college campus or Old City this weekend. In honor of Emily G’s Unnecessarily Sexy Halloween Costume Roundup, I’ve decided to share a favorite scene. Enjoy: