Script of First Annual PC Halloween Quiz taken live by Jim Braude, host of Greater Boston, on 10/31/19
Date and time: Tuesday, October 31, 2019 at 8 pm
Location: Phone XXX-XXX-XXXX
Guest: Jim Braude, host of Greater Boston and co-host of Boston Public Radio with Margery Eagan
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Jim, thanks for being my guest and agreeing to take the first annual Keep Up PC Halloween Quiz! It’s simple!
Because you are a white male stuck inside the liberal media bubble all of your politically correct responses get extra credit, obviously, and any answers deemed insensitive will be Tweeted to the president for possible retweet. So You can’t lose, really.
Ready?
According to National Geographic[1], Halloween dates back 2000 years to Celtic times. November 1st marked the Celtic New Year and the night before – like right now – on October 31st - spirits were thought to roam the earth with other demons and fairies on their way to the afterlife.
To confuse the spirits and avoid being possessed Celts wore costumes as they gathered around the bonfires and sacrificed animals.
Some wore animal skins. Some wore masks. Others blackened their face to impersonate their dead ancestors, according to an October 2018 article by Brian Handwerk.
You are a bucking young Brit in 2019 studying Celtic culture at Oxford and invited to a Halloween Party. Brexit costumes are sold-out so you decide to dress up as a dead ancestor like your dead ancestors used to do.
As a Brit, Jim, can you blacken your face as part of a Halloween costume? Is it politically correct?
à If “no – can’t do it because its racist” à Was it racist 2000 years ago? What changed?
Is imposing American norms a form cultural appropriation?
à If “yes – can do it” à okay to post to social media knowing many of your followers are American? What if you are an American studying abroad?
Next Topic
According to Maura Judkis of the Washington Post, Halloween for adults in the United States has become a celebration of heterosexual desire – a “Straight Pride Parade” in the words of sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, and there’s a HUGE market for sexy costumes -- many of them ironic – from sexy Bernie Sanders to Sexy Impeachment to Sexy Pope Francis.
In Tina Fey’s movie “Mean Girls,” the zeitgeist of the holiday was summed up nicely when Cady, the leading character, said Halloween “is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it.”
You are the Dean of a private college hosting an on-campus Halloween dance and are petitioned by a student group of feminists demanding a ban on sexy costumes because they objectify women, lower academic achievement for girls, and fortify the patriarchy with massive spending on cosmetics, plastic surgery and costumes -- pointing to research conducted by Rebecca Bigler at UT-Austin.
Meanwhile an opposing group of student feminists blaring Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” song also march in protest outside your ivory tower. A ban on sexy costumes is the oppression of women and amounts to slut-shaming, they contend. Costumes empower women and enable free expression. These folks demand the right to be a sexy swashbuckler if they choose.
It’s your call, Dean Braude: Ban or no ban?
Getting back to the Celts for a second – Male Celts apparently dressed up as women on Halloween 2000 years ago, and vice versa. In 2019 can you, Jim, don a sexy Caitlin Jenner costume to the college dance? WHY/WHY NOT?
Speaking of Caitlin Jenner – is referring to her as Kylie and Kendell Jenner’s “Dad” misgendering? (apparently not according to ALYSSA BAILEY of Elle Magazine)
“Caitlyn Jenner formally celebrated her 70th birthday with a family dinner last night… Everyone but Khloé Kardashian attended…Caitlyn's daughters Kylie and Kendall were there right alongside their dad, wearing party hats.”
NEXT TOPIC
You are the CEO of a major retail chain. The National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend $3.2 billion on Halloween costumes in 2019. Your store has a popular child-sized costume of a bride consisting of a white dress and a headband with a veil. It’s not sexy.
A petition lands on your desk signed by 500 people claiming the bride costume normalizes sex trafficking, is beyond inappropriate and offensive, and that your company has a social responsibility to pull it from the shelf immediately because each year, 12 million girls as young as 6 years old — the same size as the costume -- are sold or married off by their family.
In response you receive another petition, this one signed by 4500 supporters of the bride costume -- demanding the costume remain on the shelves. They argue
“It’s a costume of a BRIDE that a CHILD would be wearing, NOT a CHILD BRIDE costume -- a fantasy of what the kid might want to be as an adult — like a nurse or firefighter”
Corporate Jim – do you pull the bride costume and apologize? Why/Why not?
Does this mean chef and fireman costumes endorse child labor?”
Lightening Round:
Can Kanye West dress up as an old white lady named Kathy in sweatpants, orthopedic sneakers listening to Kenny G?
What about Michael Che?
Kirk Minihane’s birthday is today, apparently. New show funny or scary?
for Barstool Sports he produced a show with the title: Kirk Minihane Celebrates His Birthday By Making Blind Mike Cry About Grandmother's Cancer.
Can that possibly be funny?
[1] “Halloween: costumes, history, myths, and more,” by Brian Handwerk, National Geographic 10/19/18