Happy Halloween, Homo: Pumpkin Carving Thunderdome

Are you a Halloween Person? Do you wait with more excitement and glee for the Halloween episodes of your favorite show than the Christmas ones or even the finales? Do you still to this day think back fondly on the Zombie Bride from Mean Girls? Are your costumes so elaborate that they have to pass building code? Well then, maybe you are the sort who enjoys carving pumpkins.

This is for you, Pumpkin Carving Enthusiast: in our tradition of last-minute ideas whose belatedness is made up for by awesomeness, we’re going to have a pumpkin carving contest! Get out your carving knives and your paper patterns that you try to tape to the pumpkin when you’re like six but it never really works because pumpkins are round and paper is flat. Your assignment: carve an awesome pumpkin, and send it to us so we can see how awesome it is, and judge it against other pumpkins. Between now and Oct. 30, send 1-2 photos of your superfly pumpkins in .jpeg format to rachel [at] autostraddle [dot] com, and you’ll be entered into the running for a prize consisting largely of internet fame and recognition but maybe also You Do You stickers and a heartfelt handwritten note of pumpkin appreciation.

Your pumpkin does not have to be homosexually inclined, although I feel like I should point out that a google image search for “Rachel Maddow pumpkin” yields only one (kind of mediocre) result, which seems like a real shame. Your pumpkin does have to be fantastic. If you know already that you are not pumpkin-carving-inclined, step up and be a pumpkin carving ally and suggest some ideas in the comments!

feature image via http://a-u-t-u-m-n-love.tumblr.com/

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1142 articles for us.

18 Comments

  1. That first one is amazing!

    When it comes to Halloween, I’m not a big costume person but I do love to carve pumpkins! Maybe I’ll get my act together early enough this year to send in a photo.

  2. Hm. I think I might do this. I’m always really lazy with my pumpkin carving, but I refuse to let my family’s apathy influence me this time! Now I just need inspiration. I want to do something really geeky…

  3. A couple years ago when Dark Knight came out, I carved a Joker pumpkin. It was kinda cheating because I also used paint (for the white face, hair, mouth etc.) but carving the scars was really fun. My housemates found it somewhat disturbing, which generally means success at Halloween.

  4. I have carved a lot of cat designs on pumpkins and am definitely going to enter this if I can get my classy act together before the deadline.

  5. If I had any sort of artistic ability or halloween spirit, I would totally do this, but alas I do not have either it would just be a sad and pathetic attempt at carving a pumpkin.

  6. Does it count if I carve my pumpkin up into nice sized chunks that are roasted, pulverized and turned into pumpkin cinnamon rolls?

  7. The best part about carving pumpkins is making your own roasted/seasoned pumpkin seeds after. Fuck yeah

  8. I was just going to do a cat pumpkin this year, but I feel I should up the ante now. Let the googling for inspiration begin!

  9. my wife and i always have a “pumpkin carving date nite” right before halloween. they never turn out very fancy. i prefer the simple old school round eyes and silly mouth style, but it is more about her and i having fun together!

    i look fwd to seeing some fun designs!

Comments are closed.