p.j. sent in this cartoon, which nicely illustrates the gendering of Halloween costumes (found at Andy Marlette’s website):
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Alexander
My friends and I have been noticing this all season. All the costumes for women are highly sexualized, and the ones for girls just seem to be a slightly more more size appropriate version of the ones for women.
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It’s The Great Gendering of Halloween, Charlie Brown! « This Is Probably An Interesting Blog (But It Might Not Be…)
[...] definitely noticed this when I was costume hunting tonight. And they don’t make any “sexy orderly” [...]
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Victoria
I have a pretty detailed post about little girls and their Halloween costumes on my blog today. Pictures and such. I don’t know why I’m appalled each and every year. I can’t figure out what to do about it though, other than to point out to anyone who will listen how inappropriate it is.
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Hallowe’en, a day to express your most whimsical, extreme persona… « Written on the Body
[...] Image via Sociological Images [...]
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Andrew
The most ubiquitous female Halloween costume at most prepack shops is Witch. Not really sex-themed.
If you’ve ever tried on the “male” costumes, you pick up right away on the fact that they aren’t really tailored to any particular gender or body type. And there’s never really any shortage of men taking on female costumes either. Costume shops are there to put out something resembling what they expect to be the most popular ideas held by people too lazy or rushed to put together their own creations.
The retailers and wares depicted in these recent sourpuss posts are to Halloween what McDonald’s is to food. I absolutely hate the food McDonald’s has to offer…but rather than shaking my head in dismay at how appalling food has become, I eat something else. Is it that hard?
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Lp
“And there’s never really any shortage of men taking on female costumes either.”
Really? I’ve never seen a guy wearing a Sexy Witch or Sexy Cat outfit. If a man did it would be played as comedic not sexy.
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Andrew
I didn’t suggest otherwise! But is there any day of the year on which you see more men in drag?
(Assuming you don’t live somewhere with a huge visible gay subculture – otherwise, you certainly will have seen far more flambouyant drag than “sexy cat” by now!)
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Bagelsan
Well, the last “drag” I saw at Halloween was three white college guys pretending to be famous black women — yeah, they stuffed the butts of their clothes, what little clothes they were wearing, and wore blackface. (Of *course* it was played as comedic.) And yeah, that was the only crossdressing I saw last Halloween at all.
So… maybe that’s not an improvement over men wearing men’s costumes exclusively, ya think? The number of men in drag is certainly *not* a good indicator of how well female characters/costumes are respected.
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Victoria
Andrew, your McDonalds analogy has a massive hole in it. The problem with it is that no one in society EXPECTS you to eat at McDonald’s when you’re hungry. McDonald’s isn’t pushed upon you. You don’t go outside or open your front door on October 31st and have people shoving Big Macs in your face and urging you to eat them because everyone else is eating them. No one tells you that you’re uptight or a prude if you choose to eat at Subway. No one makes you think that your only option for lunch is McDonald’s.
But it’s pretty obvious that society expects not just women to be sexy, but little girls to be as well. It IS shoved in their faces. And there is no shortage of examples on this site of how this sexualization of girls isn’t just limited to Halloween. It’s just highly celebrated on Halloween. Little boys should fantasize about being heroes and little girls should fantasize about being sexy so they’ll grow up and be even sexier as women…and not even question how things got to this point. Sorry, Andrew, it’s not quite as simple as you’d like to think it is.
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sarah
Nice point
There’s a cultural pressure that needs to be acknowledged. Nobody’s forcing me to dress sexily, but it’s definitely expected, in my area anyway. -
Andrew
Victoria, my impression is that you misunderstood my argument, because your tirade is against something else entirely.
Perhaps I should’ve been clearer with the McDonalds analogy. The point was that, of all of the different ways you can put together a costume (from thrift stores to craft shops or things laying around the house…), and of all the autonomy you have in choosing whether to wear one at all, the shops that sell prepacked costumes simply happen to represent the most convenient mass-produced option for the laziest or most hurried people. McDonalds minimizes its stock to the fast sleazy food with the highest turnover so that it can maximize its profits. And the prepack costumes stick to cheap sleazy and instantly iconic costumes that people are most likely to buy.
Now, the analogy that I made unfortunately was too kind to McDonald’s. If you’re hungry, nowhere near home, and the only available options are fast food, that would certainly constitute a pressure to buy it (this used to happen to me a lot at work). For a sexy costume to be truly comparable, there would have to be a genuine imperative for you as an adult to get dressed up against your will. And then there would have to be no materials with which you could possibly construct something that suits you. There’s really no circumstance in which both of these things could ever be true.
Your point about women in general feeling pressured to be sexy is not one I disagree with. Even though a huge amount of this perceived pressure happens to come directly from other women or girls, I’m well aware of the culture of sexism underlying this behavior. But unlike the vast multitude of situations in life where you as a woman or minority have no genuine alternative to discrimination and hostility, you have the absolute freedom to cover your body (and face) as much as you please, with any material you desire, on Halloween. If the worst consequence of resisting some perceived pressure is that you get called “uptight,” then you aren’t the victim of oppression – you probably just need nicer friends.
When you’re denied your civil rights or stripped of your sense of human dignity because you didn’t dress like Catwoman, be sure to post your story!
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Makenzie
Really? You get pressured to wear sexy costumes?
…I’ve worn nerdy, completely non-sexualized costumes for my entire life, and no one’s ever said anything other than how cool they are. Actually, even at my high school, where girls are stereotyped as being “airheaded” and sex-obsessed, the majority of the girls’ costumes are clever and interesting as opposed to just “sexy”. I see those kinds of costumes in stores all the time, and there are always a few people wearing them, but in my experience they’re almost always met with derision and condemnation. Am I living in a totally different world or something?
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Victoria
If you’re not living close to South Beach (Miami) then yes, you do live in a different world than I do. But you’re lucky in this case.
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Victoria
…and for the record, I’m not pressured to much that I cave in and, in defeat, dress like a sexy cat. In fact, I don’t dress up at all. But if I did I wouldn’t get my costume from a store. I just think that buying your kids their costumes at the store every year suggests that that is a norm to them. The stores are more and more frequently carrying “sexy” over “clever” or “funny”, and then as a woman, our options are furthered narrowed…unless we realize that they don’t HAVE to wear whatever’s in the stores. Some of us have, and some of us haven’t. I just don’t like the insinuation that women ALWAYS have to be sexy, and that’s what I get from Halloween.
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Redhead Metalhead
I’ve noticed that for the past few years. I was like that girl, looking at the “girl’s” costumes, and thinking, “Fuck this, I’ll just either get a skull mask and wear my typical metalhead clothing with it, or buy a costume elsewhere or something.” I’m glad I decided on the latter, because I found a Scorpion costume. I imagine that everyone I know is going to be shocked once they figure out it’s me instead of a man. I’d love to see the looks on their faces.
Then again, I’ll be going to a Halloween party with my girlfriend, and she’ll be dressing up as Ellen Ripley (a character I would’ve picked to go as, had all else failed). That means everyone will recognize her, thus possibly recognize me in the process.
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Gendering Halloween Costumes » Sociological Images VX China
[...] post: Gendering Halloween Costumes » Sociological Images By admin | category: sexy girls | tags: are-stereotyped, high-school, majority, [...]
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Anonymous
I know! I was looking for kitty ears at the local costume/Halloween stores today (although not for a sexy kitty, but for Schrodinger’s cat – I’m that kinda girl, LOl) and I found excessive numbers of ’sexy ____’ costumes. It’s the worst in college, girls feel obligated to wear as little as possible while guys just throw on a sports jersey (and occasionally carry a water pistol/stuffed dog/etc to represent some news event regarding their athlete of choice).
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sarah
Haha, awesome costume
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maren
for everyone who doesn’t have a costume yet, here’s a sexy riot grrrl (wtf?!) : http://www.halloweencostumes4u.com/prods/rub882034.html
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Bagelsan
Wow. From the site: “She’s sure to turn heads when she wears this stylish Riot Grrrl Child’s Halloween Costume.”
What parent wants their young daughter to turn heads??
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Village Idiot
She’s sure to turn heads when she wears this stylish Riot Grrrl Child’s Halloween Costume.
I guess the word “stylish” has been thoroughly hijacked by ad copy writers and now obviously means nothing at all (among other once-useful adjectives).
And since when did rioters have costumes? I thought they were traditionally “come as you are” type events (unless you’re an official police rioter or agent provocateur) so all you need to dress up as a riot boy or riot grrrl is to carry a brick or beer bottle full of gasoline with a rag stuffed in the top.
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tripitaka
Riot Girl (or grrl) was a feminist/punk subculture from the ’90s.
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Louche
Dude! Witches are most definitely sex-themed. Maybe not sexualized, but the other side of the same coin. According to Wikipedia, “The patriarchal beliefs that Puritans held in the community added further stresses. Women, they believed, should be totally subservient to men. By nature, a woman was more likely to enlist in the Devil’s service than was a man, and women were considered lustful by nature.” Furthermore, witches are typically portrayed not only as evil, but ugly and old with warts, although many of the women accused of being witches were very young, even adolescent. Of course, the ideal of a woman in patriarchal society is young and pretty.
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Doot
I hope everyone had a fun halloween!
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hoarding it for home. « recon(figure)asian
[...] to no career aspirations. the closest thing i may want to be occupationally is a librarian. (or in halloween costume custom for women, sexy librarian.) it’s senior year, and there are people [...]
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