This is Halloween! ..and also very sexist
Halloween is right around the corner and with it so are all the costume parties. As most shops offer costumes only for the teacup humans, adult humans usually seek their costumes from specialized costume shops or head over to the world wide web to do some online shopping. A reoccurring theme in many of these sites is the gendered way the costumes are presented to the possible buyers. Here’s my encounter with just one site’s offering of the costumes.
There is a Ghostbuster costume, a long-sleeved jumpsuit, and then there’s the Ghostbuster dress, with a giving décolleté and a short hem. As you’ve might have guessed, the former is presented by a male model and the latter by a female model. There’s of course the surgeon’s costume for men, your basic scrubs, or the long white coat. For women? You guessed it, a nurse with a revealing dress. Even costumes titled ‘woman doctor’ shine with their absence, let alone only doctor costume presented by a male and a female model.
Then you have your pilot, a man modelling of course, and then there’s the short-skirted flight attendant, in three different designs, oh what variety! Somehow, there’s even a Death costume, that is totally ridiculous. For men, yes, the basic black robes you see Death often depicted as. And for women, something short, frilly, and revealing. In purple. How does that even connect with the Death we all know and love? This site, unlike some, had the police costumes named by gender, though one of the women’s costumes was sadly a catsuit rather than anything to do with an actual uniform.
At least the old timey swimming costume was more covering for women than for men! No, wait, it’s still sexist just in historical terms!
Many of us remember what Cady said in Mean Girls about this. “In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it."
Hopefully, we all agree that this is a very outdated way of thinking. However, I am not saying that you should not dress up this way if you want to. Because if it is what you truly want then hells to the yes, go and be the sexiest version of yourself you can for Halloween! I am there for it and support your choices fully. Insert a flame emoji here.
As I said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, only, this should be an option, not the only choice we have. The way Halloween costumes are presented on the sites selling costumes is affirming sexist and patriarchal ways of thinking and holding on to the power idea that certain professions are for women and certain for men. It gives the impression that women are airheads and not worthy of bigger pieces of clothing than napkins or not worthy of aiming high in regards of their career goals. For example, the way doctor costumes are directed towards men and nurses for women is backwards way of depicting professions and a way of inserting power over women.
Some of you might think this is harmless and a good fun but in fact it is all but harmless or fun. Offering only this kind of gendered representation strengthens this type of sexist thinking and misogyny. Even if it is only one day a year it is one day to strengthen it and that one day a year it makes it harder to break these paradigms. This representation also leaves out non-binary people altogether. If this is the offered range of costumes, revealing, or not revealing both kind of costumes should be presented by all kinds of models to include all people, binary and non-binary, not just the ones that fit into the typical sexist categories.
Misogyny has always existed but it has only now begun to gain more space in public discussion. Sexist ways of presenting costumes for women are one way misogyny can dig its feet deeper into the sand and into the society and to have means to control women and how they are seen. For some, Halloween might feel the only day to dress up sexier than normal since women are objectified and criticized for the way they dress every other day of the year. These sexy Halloween costumes, despite encouraging to display sexiness, also objectify women. Hence, we come back full circle. These costumes encourage sexiness, but women might still be bashed for dressing up “too sexy.” In a way, there’s no way for women to win this fight unless we smash the patriarchy. Or these harmful paradigms the very least.
