Hippie Halloween

I spent this past weekend in a "cabin" located in the middle of no-where West Virginia. No heat, no running water, no indoor plumbing. Only a light blub with an outlet that we jerry-rigged a space heater to. Normally, we wouldn't even have the cabin, we would have stayed in a tent. So why would a pregnant woman torture herself this way?

Because it was the 6th anivesery of the Halloween show my boyfriend started at a hippie commune called Sunshine Daydream. Sunshine Daydream is also where my boyfriend and I went on our first date. And yes it was an early Halloween celebration, Thanksgiving comes early at Sunshine Daydream as well.

When Saturday came around, I decided to get dressed up as a pregnant nun and have my boyfriend dress up as a preist. When we walked into the "barn" where the music was playing, lots of other women and girls were wearing costumes as well. But unlike mine, these costumes revealed alot of flesh, espeically for the West Virginian mountain air. One woman who we had seen previously at another hippie show, was wearing an angel costume that showed her breasts, which she had decorated with glitter. Another girl (who I actually thought was 10 years younger then her actual age) was in a slutty witch costume with a skirt that barely covered her butt, luckily she was wearing stockings. Another woman was dressed in a hot nurses outfit that included 5 inch platform heals that are really dangerous on the rocky slopes of Sunshine Daydream.

When it came time for us to get judged for the costume contest by some Daydream locals, these women yelled, screamed and shaked their stuff to get attention. One girl was like "well I guess I could show them my underwear"...I just stood in line and smiled, while playing with my cross. My boyfriend and I ended up winning the contest and two tickets to another Daydream show.

To me, Sunshine Daydream has always represented freedom. As soon as I enter, I always sigh with relief. I know there are no cops around, no media propaganda, no-one who is going to judge me for who I am, how I dance or what kind of music I listen to. No-one is there who would judge me for being pregnant. Instead people constantly came up to me and wished me luck, happy to see that another baby would be added to the third generation of sunshine kids.

So it was a shock to see hippie girls openly embracing the chains of sexism in our society. In place where there is no judgement these women open themsleves up to be judged based on their sexual appreance, not their wit, humor or intelligence. It was also a waste. Even though the party was filled with males, I noticed men did not apporach these women.

Another thing I noticed about this party was the complete lack of female musicans. Out of the 7 groups who played through out the weekend, only one had a female singer/guitarist. The rest of the bands were completely male, even though the bands covered a wide spectrum of different sounds.

I'm discovering that even in the hippie world there are alot of roles that need to be broken. This idea that hippie girls should fit some sort of bi-sexual, crafty, stoner girl sterotype is getting kind of old, even if most hippie girls are just that. It sucks that in a society that is trying to break away from mainstream society, internal sexism, not external forces, reduce women back to certain roles and sterotypes.