It seems that every year we have a national discussion about the appropriateness of sexy Halloween costumes for women and even for little girls. I’m not opposed to sexy costumes per se. It’s the one day a year when adults can dress up as someone else and play a character. To some extent I think, “Hey, if you got it, flaunt it.” My sister is nerd who wanted to be a superhero for Halloween. This weekend she went out as Wonder Woman and, heck, if I had her legs I’d wear that costume too! However, I draw the line when it comes to stereotypes that objectify or fetishize women. There is a difference between being Wonder Woman (a strong, heroic character) and, say, a sexy nurse. Nursing is a serious profession that deserves respect not demeaning stereotypes. I also don’t know why EVERY commercially available costume needs to be sexy. Sexy french fries? What the hell is that about? It’s sounds like an Onion parody.
“Hot Fries” written over the crotch. Classy.
This year we’ve noticed something even worse than overly sexualized Halloween costumes for women – a rash of racist costumes. First there was the Australian woman who hosted an “African” themed birthday party, complete with her douchey friends in blackface. Then came the ignorant, but ultimately contrite Julianne Hough dressed as an African-American character from Orange is the New Black. Finally, there were the two jerks who were off-the-charts racist and tasteless for their Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman get-up. This image deservedly went viral.
Amazingly, some purveyors of adult costumes have managed to combine hyper sexual costumes with racist stereotypes. While we were in Halloween City my husband took one look at the “Indian Princess” costumes and said, “Why don’t they just call this section, ‘Sexy Racist?’”
This inspired the L&P team to do a little research and, sure enough, it wasn’t hard to find more costumes that turned women into sexual objects while also managing to tap into ethnic stereotypes. Here are just a few of the worst offenders.
2 comments
I wonder why Julianne was criticized for dressing as an African-American TV character and the Wayans brothers were considered comic heroes when they dressed in drag and mocked white women in their film White Chicks? How is it different?
Patti, I think it’s because blackface is connected with late 19th Century/early 20th Century minstrel shows and crude stereotypes of African-Americans that were super racist. The oppression didn’t go in the other direction. Remember, Robert Downey Jr. played a character in blackface in “Tropic Thunder” and it wasn’t widely criticized that I’m aware of. I think that might be a better comparison to the Wayans brothers. All that said, I didn’t think Julianne Hough’s costume was the most offensive thing ever. She just didn’t realize that it would be seen as inappropriate. I believe her apology that she just likes the show and the character and didn’t mean to offend anyone.