In general, Halloween costumes are fun. They can be a reflection of the individual or of recent
topics of discussion. Or in the case of one
Inlander writer,
literally a topic of discussion:
click to enlarge
Daniel Walters Photo
Inlander staff writer Daniel Walters as a fake Salon thinkpiece titled "Smashing the 'Slutty Pumpkin': Why the Sexy Halloween Costume Trend is #Problematic"
But they can also be racist, sexist,
racist and sexist,
unnecessarily sexy (
there's a
lot of
these),
buffoonish,
stereotypical,
demeaning and just
freakin' wrong.
In Washington state, apparently Halloween costumes are a little food-ish, slightly bumbling and quite frankly, really nerdy, according to 11 years worth of Google trends data.
Real estate site Estately compiled the data and listed all the costumes searched by each of the 50 states more than any other states.
Washington's top Halloween costume searches are
bumblebee, e
wok, robot (tied with Colorado),
Star Trek, sushi, wench,
Where the Wild Things Are and
My Little Pony.
Idaho,
Oregon and Montana didn't come in first for any costume searches, but California's searches include Abraham Lincoln,
Addams Family, Adolf Hitler, Black Spiderman, cholo, hipster, illegal alien, Mexican, pregnant nun, racist,
Rugrats, vagina and
Wayne's World.
Now, we love Google search data as much as the next person. And we love maps, like this one that Estately produced to accompany its "data analysis:"
But, we should also mention that there are some flaws with Estately's methods, which amounts to a "throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and hope something sticks" way of doing things, according to this
Vox.com explainer.
Basically, Estately enters hundreds of search terms into
Google Trends, which then tells users which states have Googled that term the most.
In other words, just because Washington state Googled "My Little Pony" more than any other state does not mean we Googled "My Little Pony" more than any other costumes.
Make sense?