Yeah - I know - I'm old. I make frequent jokes about it!
But I remember when I was a child and when Halloween costumes were BPA-laden face masks and an outfit that ripped if you breathed on it wrong. Costumes for adults were very simple and they were designed to scare people...not as a way to show off your new Miracle Bra!
Then I went to college and we got such racy costumes as dressing like an M&M or even a head-to-toe red bodysuit, with a tail and horns. THAT was the "risque outfit", because you had to have a built like a brick (ahem) "poophouse" to pull that costume off! Most of the costumes for adults involved a large foam "thing" (Queen of Hearts, M&M, etc) and tights. They didn't require a miracle bra and a gym membership to wear them!
Fast-forward 23 years and I think I must have been asleep, because I missed something. Sexy Bert & Ernie? Why not just have a sexy Mr. Rogers and have the woman wear nothing but a cardigan (underwear optional!)?
Then we have women "empowering themselves" by taking over the character of a horror movie:
Yeah - because there is nothing that I look forward to more than taking my 6, 9 and 11 year-old to a house where the treats are handed out by a chick with implants wearing red thigh-highs and wielding an ax!
But this one has to be the worst:
Here we have a costume based on a VERY plus-sized woman...but the Ursula costume isn't available if you are larger than a size 14. The ONE character in Disneyana that isn't a twig yet was a confident (albeit evil) woman? Fatties need not apply if they want to be her this year!
Halloween is and has always been a holiday for kids. It is not a night to unleash your inner whore! I know that Halloween is a great night to go out to the bars and hook up if you aren't at home mindlessly telling 200 kids how their costume is the BEST ONE EVER (not that I am jealous of you or anything) but could you please de-skankify it a bit? I'm not saying that red-thigh-high costumes (once a year) are the reason that my daughter is asking me to tie her shirt in a knot above her belly-button...but PLEASE!
Here are some costumes/characters that should NEVER be made "sexy":
- Bert & Ernie
- Ursula the Sea Witch
- Strawberry Shortcake
- My Little Pony
- Bratz (they are already slutty enough)
- Blues Clues
- Mary Poppins
- Zombies (do I stab you in the brain? Jump your bones? It's just too confusing!)
- The Flying Nun (see - "I'm old" mentioned above)
- Any Childrens cartoon
Of course - one of you is going to say "Min - these are costumes for ADULTS...not children! Stop being so stick-in-the-muddy! They wear these to go out to parties with their friends". But here is the problem....the catalogs that come to my house with a kid-appropriate cover invariably have these kinds of costumes as well. These are the costumes that I expect to see in a Fredericks Of Hollywood catalog not one that comes to my house with a picture of Buzz Lightyear on the cover! I would like to be the perfect parent who goes through every 890-page catalog before my children see the mail...but sometimes I am just not.
So what say you? Am I wrong to be upset about the "Skankifying of Halloween"?
Mary Jane
I agree! This is just one of the many reasons that Halloween does not exist on my planet. We are exposing our children to at least R-rated scenes and indirectly telling them is is OK to look like a street walker as long as candy is involved. Hmmmmm today candy, tomorrow, well you know. I love having fun, even donning costumes, but can't we have lot so DECENT fun? Thank you for writing this.
Linda C.
LOL your post is too funny! I only agree with you because I don't have the body to wear one of those skankified costumes!
Maggie C
Totally agree! Sadly, I see the tweens and teens dressing this way too. 🙁
Nicole Larsen
Because When I Think Of Ursula From The Little Mermaid, I Think “Size 2!” ----bahaha thank you for the post :p
Lisa
I took my 18&7 yo daughters to find a snow princess. We saw a'snake charmer" ..the snake came out of a guys zipper. We saw a nun who was called Dirty Habit. We saw a Rehab Nurse costume but it looked like a prostitute. We even saw a sperm. And we never found the snow princess
Angie @ Many Little Blessings
I totally agree. Though, I couldn't help but laugh when the ad under the post pulled sexy Halloween costumes, of course - one of which was a sexy Tigger. That is just crazy wrong. Tigger? Seriously.