Apparently I am not the only one stepping on a Soap Box to voice concerns over Halloween costume choices. Halloween has passed and thus I have packed up our witches and ghost decorations (albeit most of our fall decorations are ones that last through the entire season), but the debate in my mind continues. Why, might you ask? Well, reader, if so many people are writing blogs against the sexy and inappropriate costumes available for children, why do these costumes continue to exist? Either the demand is out there, or people are purchasing what the costume industry suggests.
All I had to do was Google "Inappropriate Children's Halloween Costume" and the results were amazing.
Oddee has a list of 12 most inappropriate children's costumes (view link here), iVillage chimed in with an article (view link here), the FW adds a few new ones (view link here), and The Huffington Post also made a hilarious collection of costumes on their site (view link here).
The thing is: society is laughing about Baby Hitler and Sex Kitten. Rather shouldn't we be concerning ourselves with what IS appropriate? Maybe encouraging (demanding) costume companies to make other, less sexy and gross, options.
However, the other day I was reading Hello Giggles (which is a great site by the way) and I came across this Blog Post from Ruby Karp. Ruby is an 11 year old blogger, who was also having a very difficult time finding appropriate costumes to wear this Halloween. In my opinion, 11 is still a child and in no way ready for a sexy costume.
But the true question is: are we that unimaginative that we are okay with what is presented at the local costume shops. Maybe it is a case of time (I know that I spent countless hours making our costumes last fall), or money, or just a case of not caring. However, after a lot of searching, I came across a most awesome site: TAKE BACK HALLOWEEN!
And maybe that is what we parents need to do - TAKE BACK HALLOWEEN for our children. I say children because even though there are a lot of sexy costumes for young girls, boys are also inundated with gross, violent, and inappropriate costumes too. Does that mean we have to make costumes? No. But what we should not do is encourage the industry by posting how "funny" something is; or purchasing the "least sexy" option. Make the industry change for us!
1 comment:
I agree. When there are costumes like a sexy banana (yes ma'am, that was an option this year), there's something wrong.
Post a Comment