<p>From a very reputable newspaper which I fully vouch for as to general accuracy.<br>
I think this is a negative for young tween girls who can’t cash checks they are writing.</p>
<p><a href=“captimes.com | The Capital Times: Madison WI News”>captimes.com | The Capital Times: Madison WI News;
<p>Along the same lines, Joel Stein of the LATimes wrote a piece the other day suggesting we rename Halloween, “Slut Day.” (Or make it a new holiday so we can leave Halloween to the kids).</p>
<p>This trend is not new, unfortunately. I recall when my D (who turns 25 today, my Mischief Night baby :)), was in grade school, half the girls were either Madonna or a French maid. Yucchh!</p>
<p>Incredible. How do you, as a parent, let your little girl out of the house in something that you know is inappropriate? My parents still do it now, though I can’t imagine me wearing something that inappropriate. But I know that if they did they’d have no problem making me change.</p>
<p>None of the mothers and daughters in the article liked these costumes. The market will adjust to what people want and will buy. This is up to parents. If the parents won’t buy these types of costumes for kids too young to purchase their own, you won’t find them on the rack next year. If teenagers buy their own or parents are purchasing them, you’ll see them again next year. </p>
<p>I am not a fan of the sexualization of young girls. Revealing clothing doesn’t necessarily have to be very sexual, but in the US today it most definitely is. When you have 28 year old parents dressing up their 5 or 9 or 11 year olds, though… well, it tends to be a different market because the parents picking costumes wore these same sexy costumes themselves a few years ago.</p>
<p>To speak to the college view, costumes certainly need to be attractive. They don’t necessarily have to be revealing, especially for men, but large bulky costumes that completely hide the body and face are out of style. People still like to look like people when they dress up today. In terms of women, every costume is basically “Sexy --------,” whether that blank is “pirate,” “princess,” “construction worker,” or anything else. But, these are college parties; girls want to look sexy every time they go out. This is just a day to do it more overtly without being labeled a slut.</p>
<p>In terms of teens dressing up, as Cady Haron said in Mean Girls:</p>
<p>“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.”</p>
<p>XD I knew that would get quoted sooner or later.</p>
<p>Yes - Halloween has been morphing at a pretty fast pace for the past 20 years or so. I can remember when it really wasn’t a dress-up holiday for adults at all. I was in a seasonal Halloween store over the weekend with my daughter and some of her friends and yikes! Of course, they are a group of beautiful 18 year old girls, so most of the costumes were tailor made for them - but everything was “Sexy this” and “Sexy that.” The young adult male costumes were just gross. I’d say that over half of the store was oriented towards young adults and the other half towards kids. Interesting. I didn’t notice the kid’s costumes being particularly sexualized, but I wasn’t really looking.</p>
<p>I think that depends on your definiton of “kids”.</p>
<p>Around here, the really young kids still want to be a fairy/princess/fairy princess (XD)/witch/etc.</p>
<p>Even the esteemed Washington Post has a big story on this.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902095.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902095.html</a></p>
<p>i saw a costume a couple of years ago that ws just so icky, i actually called the manufacturer and the store owners…</p>
<p>I have seen those costumes on HS girls, no biggy, BUT the marketing to pre-teens is just yucky</p>
<p>And if parents don’t pay, they will stop making them</p>
<p>AND don’t buy the OTHER cosutmes sold by those manufacturers either, but be sure and let them know you are doing that</p>
<p>My D and her friends, all Jrs, well their costumes for a party were, well, interesting, but they were actually covered pretty well, relatively speaking</p>
<p>But no way would my D have worn anything like that as an 8th grader</p>
<p>power of the pocket book and letting manufacturers know your feelings</p>
<p>OMG, I remember as a frosh in college going to a Halloween party with two other girlfriends and a guy. We girls were dressed like whores and he was a pimp. Now that I think about it, how obnoxious. Why did I do such a thing? (When you got it, flaunt it? :eek:) Come to think of it, it was an excuse to wear stuff that you’d never think about wearing in your wildest dreams.
I certainly wouldn’t want a young teenage daughter dressing up like that, though.</p>
<p>I remember a post on Feministing.com about this very subject.</p>
<p><a href=“http://feministing.com/archives/007976.html#more[/url]”>http://feministing.com/archives/007976.html#more</a></p>
<p>I saw a newscast about this. </p>
<p>However, my kids never bought costumes. They would come up with some creative idea and I’d create it for them. So, we were not truly at the mercy of what the “hot” (that could be interpretted many ways!) costumes were of the moment. We didn’t do this to avoid sexy costumes but now that I think about it, it never was about choosing a costume from what was selling. Some costumes I recall that I made at their request…Jack in the Box, Pencil (something she was “inside” that we created), a Pog (as kinda a sandwich board, huge painted pog on circular corrugated board on front and back of body and pogs stapled all over clothing and hat), a dollar bill (again a huge sandwich board I painted for front and back of body), a wizard, a Chinese outfit, a diva…these are more from the tween years. When younger than that, costumes like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, Belle in Beauty and Beast, a mermaid, Peter Pan, etc. None were sexy at all. They stopped dressing up and trick or treating in middle school. Freshman year of college, I recall when D2 was 17, she did dress up for the Greenwich Village parade and that was a little more ‘sexy’ as she and roomie were police women which did include short skirts and the guy friend was their inmate. But that was college!</p>
<p>I am no Crafty Chica but we, too, were of the homemade costume ilk all the years DS was young. Ninja turtle, Doctor, Headless horseman… all cobbled together with stuff we could do at home. Sans sewing machine.</p>
<p>Mostly because that’s what he wanted to be and it only took a little imagination to stuff a parka under a green t-neck/green tights and make the turtle “shell” from brown craft paper, add the face paint, etc.</p>
<p>Besides, the “store-bought” costumes were so sleazy.</p>
<p>Of course, in those days “sleazy” meant cheaply made, not turning the kids into cheap tarts. Who knew that DS’ youth (he’s not even 21 quite yet) would be looked back upon as the Good Old Days?</p>
<p>Our trick or treat night is always the Friday before Halloween so we had it last week and it poured rain the whole two hours. If anyone had a slutty costume, I never saw it. There were some pretty princess outfits but I guess the skimpy costumed kids realized their outfits weren’t water-proof! The most popular thing to do around here is cross dressing for boys, ghouls and nerds. Girls tend to be witches or Princesses. I will buy a mask or hat but the costumes themselves are old graduation gowns or cut up old clothes.</p>
<p>JmMom…I cracked up at the notion that our college aged kids could look back on their Halloween costume days as the “good 'ole days!” LOL We’re aging them! I want to point out that hardly any of my kids’ costumes involved sewing as I am not a seamstress. But I did make homemade costumes most years and was pretty crafty if I must say so. We still have them all too. :D</p>