Halloween and the establishment of gender roles

Halloween and the establishment of gender roles PartyCity.coms boys and girls toddler Cookie Monster costumes So although I was concerned? disappointed? upon seeing a post on Tumblr the other day comparing the boys and girls options for Cookie Monster toddler-sized costumes (see image, left) the other day, I cant say I was surprised. Now, Im not saying that someone sat down and brainstormed how they could make the toddler girls Cookie Monster costume sexy. I rather hope that anyone who would do such a thing is, you know, in jail. But I also think that the comparison at left shows the roots of the gender divide in Halloween costumes. The costume intended for boys (and therefore marketed to the parents of boys) is concerned with actually duplicating to some degree what Cookie Monster actually looks like. It also looks like its made of warm material, which is important in a large sector of the United States. By contrast, the girls Cookie Monster costume (marketed to the parents of girls) is merely a hat tip to the character of Cookie Monster slapped onto the basic frame of a frilly dress. There is essentially no attempt to make the costume actually look like Cookie Monster. And if relative warmth of a costume is an issue, parents will have to provide a turtleneck and tights to wear under the dress themselves, because keeping the costumed girl warm is clearly not a priority of this costume either. On PartyCity.com, the toddler boys section of costumes has separate career and classic themed sub-sections. In the toddler girls section, the two are combined.   Careers to which the boys might aspire? NASCAR driver, police officer (including SWAT and regular uniforms), soldier (generic army), admiral, fighter pilot, commercial pilot, firefighter, astronaut, UPS driver, postal worker, magician, and clown. With the girls career costumes combined with the classic ones, its difficult to pinpoint the precise number of careers Party City believes little girls might be aspiring to. Near as I can tell, they are as follows: cowgirl, cheerleader, clown, magician (although Id have pegged the costume as a magic-using princess if they hadnt labeled it as a magician), celebrity starlet (a la Paris Hilton), half-pint referee (in a miniskirt even the NFL replacement refs didnt wear miniskirts), and a can-can girl. PartyCity.coms toddler Superman and Wonder Woman costumes Further perusal of the selection of toddler costumes shows a general tendency for the boys costumes to attempt to duplicate (with varying degrees of simplification) the actual look of whatever the costume ostensibly represents whilst there is a general tendency for the girls costumes to attempt to fit whatever the costume ostensibly represents to a frilly dress, usually at the expense of direct representation. Often with the girls costumes there isnt even an attempt to pretend a real thing is being represented a frilly tutu dress with a cupcake on it becomes a Lil Cupcake costume. Is she supposed to be a cupcake? A person who sells cupcakes? A person who eats cupcakes? Its not a costume! Its a frilly dress with a cupcake on it! Another tendency I noticed is that with the boys costumes there is a marked tendency to add muscles. This is not particularly unexpected when youre talking about the superhero costumes (such as the toddler Superman costume at left), but it becomes a bit ridiculous when the toddler astronaut costume adds muscles. Im pretty sure you cant see muscles in a spacesuit! Maybe Im just looking at them from the wrong angle. This pattern of adding muscles to boys costumes even when logic dictates one shouldnt is not at all present in girls costumes even the superhero ones. Arguably, WonderWoman should have some muscles. Magic bracelets or no, shes a superhero, and Im pretty sure theyve got muscles. But the WonderWoman costume is just a dress and some accessories. (And I wont even mention the fact that whilst none of the boys in any of the age groups are wearing discernable makeup unless its an intrinsic part of the costume, even the toddler girls are clearly fully made up. Lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, blush, the whole deal.) My favorite irony in the toddler section, however, is that in the boys selection of TV/movie costumes, there is a costume for Hedwig, Harry Potters pet owl. There is not a Hedwig costume (nor indeed any Harry Potter-related costume) in the toddler girls section. This is ironic because Hedwig is a female owl. (Apparently she was played in the films by a male owl, but she was still referred to in said films as a female character.) PartyCity.coms kids cowboy and cowgirl costumes I moved on to investigate the kids section, which is again divided into boys and girls sections and further subdivided by theme. On the plus side, in this age group there are enough career costumes for the girls to have their own section of them. Of course, said section is still littered with careers such as cupcake cutie, gypsy princess (nice work if you can get it?), 1950s carhop (aka waitress), another miniskirted-referee, another impractically-dressed cowgirl (my sister is the genuine article and I promise you shes never looked anything like the girls costume at left, although she has come close to the boys version), and three varieties of cheerleader, none of whom sound particularly cheery (the bad spirit cheerleader, the cheerless cheerleader, and the gothic cheerleader). There is a doctor costume which pops up in the results, but it is the same costume thats listed in the boys section, right down to the little boy who is modeling it. Naturally the boys career selection is somewhat better at having actual careers represented. Additionally, the trend of boys costumes leaning more towards actual representation and girls costumes leaning towards making the supposed subject of the costume fit onto a dress continues in the older age group, even extending to odd costumes like the birds from the game Angry Birds. The boy version is vaguely angry bird-shaped, whilst the girl version is a little red dress with an angry bird face on it. PartyCity.coms boys Escaped Prisoner and girls Miss Dee Meaner Prisoner costumes And then theres the criminal costumes. For toddlers, there was one prisoner costume. It was essentially striped pajamas and was listed only under the boys section. For older kids, there are boys and girls options. The boys option (far left) is simply titled Escaped Prisoner costume and consists of loose-fitting striped pajamas, a pair of over-size manacles, and ball and chain for the childs ankle. The girls option, on the other hand, is titled Miss Dee Meaner Prisoner costume. It consists of capri-length leggings, a fitted tunic, and pink handcuff bracelets. Its a pretty short step from this to the Wardens Mistress womens costume, thats all Im saying. In and of itself, the Miss Dee Meaner costume (which again, is intended for young girls, not teens) is perhaps only minorly problematic. Indeed, in and of itself, the toddler Cookie Monster dress isnt particularly problematic. Its not particularly effective either, at least not if ones goal is to dress ones child up as Cookie Monster, but hey, some little girls just want to wear a frilly dress. Which is fine. If your little girl wants a frilly dress, give the girl a frilly dress. But the problem is that unless the parent (or the child) thinks to/is willing to look in the boys costumes as well, there arent very many options that arent a frilly dress or, as the child gets older, a slinky dress. PartyCity.coms toddler Lil Cupcake and teen Cupcake Girl costumes For example, the Lil Cupcake frilly dress for the toddler (far left) turns into the Cupcake Girl extremely abbreviated slinky dress (near left) for the teen. And Im still not entirely sure what career this represents for the toddler, or how cupcake patterned minidress qualifies as a classic costume for the teen. Then again, perhaps the reason why costume makers for young girls find it so difficult to create girl versions of police officer costumes or firefighter costumes or military costumes has to do with what the woman versions of those costumes look like. As far as people who make costumes for grown-ups are concerned, female Naval officers look like this, female Army commandos like this, female fighter pilots (excuse me, Air Force Angels, because obviously there are no female fighter pilots) like this, female cops like this, female firefighters like this, female astronauts like this, and they have no idea what female doctors look like, because all female medical professionals are nurses who look something like this. This article doesnt even really begin to scratch the surface of the murky gender issues surrounding Halloween and I didnt even get to reminisce about all the varieties of sexy _____ to which I bore witness over three Halloweens at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but I hope Ive given yall something to think about. Im not sure what my Halloween plans are this year, but if I do find myself a party to attend, I think Ill just go as Arthur Dent from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Yeah, hes a man and Im not, but all Id need would be pajamas, a robe, and a towel. Sounds like a plan to me.