Every year we hear about people who choose to wear inappropriate Halloween costumes. Well, for some reason, 2013 seems to be topping all other years as far as offensive costumes are concerned. You may have heard of the fury over costumes representing Trayvon Martin and Boston Marathon bombing victims, as well as criticism of celebrities like Julianne Hough for wearing blackface for her "Orange Is the New Black" attire. Now photos of two girls in the United Kingdom are causing even more outrage. They chose to dress up, if you can believe it, as the Twin Towers burning, complete with fiery explosion accessories and American flags: University of Chester students Amber Langford and Annie Collinge, both 19 years old, wore the matching costumes, one labeled "South Tower," the other "North Tower," to a party at Rosie's nightclub in Chester. Langford's father, Martin, is even a pilot. And as if all that wasn't enough, the club awarded the girls Best Dressed for their costumes, winning them a cash prize!
The pair released a statement saying: "We never meant to be offensive, but we apologize if any offense was caused. The idea was to depict a modern-day horror that happened in our lifetime and was not intended as a joke.' As you can imagine, families of 9/11 victims are among those disgusted with the costumes. Patricia Bingley, who lost her 43-year-old son Kevin Dennis in the attacks, said, "This is unbelievable — 9/11 happened in their lifetime. It's hard to understand where they've come from to do this without a thought for those who died or the families left behind." The offensive outfits bring up the question of costume regulation. The University of Colorado Boulder has banned costumes that portray racial and cultural stereotypes, including blackface makeup. The school posted flyers like these around the campus to get the point across:
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