Halloween: The most sexist children’s holiday?

[angus]

Janice D'Arcy explores the issue:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-parenting/post/halloween-the-most-sexist-childrens-holiday/2011/10/20/gIQA3ss6JM_blog.html?tid=ts_lifeent

Do you think Halloween is the most sexist of the Holidays? 

[© tweed]

I used to argue this position but then I consciously shifted to a largely reactionary position on sex issues.

[tpfkaw]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Idiotic overreaction is idiotic.

[fezzyfestoon]

Anyone who takes Halloween costumes this seriously is either intellectually lazy or just stupid. Even if there was actually something wrong with ridiculous or offensive Halloween costumes, they would not be the problem in and of themselves. Pointing to offensive costumes needing to be banned or discouraged or whatever is just a convenient way for someone to say, "look at me, I care about this issue...can't you see how much I'm changing the world?" Putting on airs pretending not to be sexist or racist doesn't mean you aren't, it just means you're aware of the fact that you're doing something wrong. Our society has huge gender and race problems and pretending we don't by targeting costumes is just ridiculous. Let's look a little deeper and try to solve the actual problem with actual solutions aimed at changing the way our society functions. This whole thing is akin to extinguishing a fire by aiming the extinguisher at the tips of the flames.

This hilarity is the reason I included race.

[angus]

I guess it's true that little boys like certain costumes and little girls like other ones, and that may be due to marketing and social factors.  If a little boy wanted to be cinderella, I imagine that most Yankee parents would say, "um, why not try spider man instead, honey?"  Similarly for girls.   

My neighbor is going to dress her two-year-old daughter as a banana.  Somewhere out there is probably a white-collar Asian-American couple that might frown on that.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This hilarity is the reason I included race.

CNN needs to quit trying to be the "equality" channel. I find all of those costumes funny, so long as the person dressed up in them does not actually go around starting stuff. Its one thing to dress as a suicide bomber; its another to visit a mosque and harass people..

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

So, her daughters wanted princess costumes, and she refused because of her own social agenda. Deplorable.

[fezzyfestoon]

This hilarity is the reason I included race.

CNN needs to quit trying to be the "equality" channel. I find all of those costumes funny, so long as the person dressed up in them does not actually go around starting stuff. Its one thing to dress as a suicide bomber; its another to visit a mosque and harass people..

Some were funny, some were offensive. But that's not the point. What's funny is the fact that they're pointing to something so absurd and so not an actual problem that they're making the joke about themselves. Their somber faces in relation to something so stupid is embarrassing. It's a waste of time that only makes their cause as serious as Halloween costumes.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This hilarity is the reason I included race.

CNN needs to quit trying to be the "equality" channel. I find all of those costumes funny, so long as the person dressed up in them does not actually go around starting stuff. Its one thing to dress as a suicide bomber; its another to visit a mosque and harass people..

Some were funny, some were offensive. But that's not the point. What's funny is the fact that they're pointing to something so absurd and so not an actual problem that they're making the joke about themselves. Their somber faces in relation to something so stupid is embarrassing. It's a waste of time that only makes their cause as serious as Halloween costumes.

Well, who doesn't like to play the victim card. All I got from that article was more costume ideas.

[Sewer]

what

no

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

This article shows it's often not the kids who have trouble understanding the difference between real and make-believe.

[Beet]

Fascinating. I suppose if I had a daughter of age, I would try to find some appropriate role models for her, and the same for a son.

[TJ in Oregon]

Maybe I'm a bit of a traditionalist, but this seems like political correctness run amok. So what if little girls dress up as ballerinas and little boys dress up as soldiers? Heaven forbid we acknowledge that there may be some differences between boys and girls, at least in a general sense. (It doesn’t necessarily need to be between all boys and all girls since some do dress in gender-neutral clothing).

I can’t believe we’re actually talking about this. This kind of stuff makes me think feminists are nuts.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

How ridiculous...  if the little girl wants to dress as a ballerina or a solider and vice versa for the boys... who cares?

I'm going to a Halloween as a 'Venetian Vampire'.. what does that tell you?

[angus]

How ridiculous...  if the little girl wants to dress as a ballerina or a solider and vice versa for the boys... who cares?

I'm going to a Halloween as a 'Venetian Vampire'.. what does that tell you?

It tells me that you're not as creative as the guy who went trick-or-treating as a hooded Klansman.  In Compton.

Or as the couple who went dressed as an odd couple indeed.  For her:  a Nazi concentration camp uniform, replete with skull'n'bones combination cap and riding crop.  For him:  a really skinny guy with shaved head dressed in striped pajamas.  Nothing but love.

Or as the fat woman who went dressed as Jasmine from Aladdin. 


My son wants to go to his school Halloween parade as a mummy.  It's really a labor-intensive costume.  We got eight rolls of first aid bandage.  He's only about 50 inches tall, so that should do it.  Every year they have all the children dress up and, one grade at a time starting with Kindergarten and running through fifth grade, they all parade through all the classrooms.  I'm a helicopter parent so of course I went and took pictures.  It took around an hour and a half.  Last year, in Kindergarten, he went as Barney.  Barney is a purple Tyrannosaurus Rex with a large overbite for a smile and a dorky country accent.  You may have heard of him.  Barney was so easy.  There's a well-made body piece with long tail and cotton-filled stomach pouch, stiched together in felt by a loving mother some twelve years ago for her own son and sold to us for five dollars at a garage sale in 2008, when her son was graduating from high school.  A headpiece with nice eye-holes.  Two purple mittens, and two purple foot-covers.  All in nice, home-stitched felt, and all held together with safety pins.  Pissing was a hassle, and required that some grown-up unfasten some safety pins, but not nearly as much hassle as pissing will be if he decides he needs to piss while wearing the mummy costume.  Barney was so easy.  We dressed him as Barney for three years in a row, but now that he's in first grade I guess he's too cool for Barney.  I expect that we'll get him to take a big dump and pee before school starts, and go easy on the liquids (and solids!) that morning. 

[Link]

So, her daughters wanted princess costumes, and she refused because of her own social agenda. Deplorable.

Really?!  If this is "deplorable" then what would you call illegally invading another country based upon a lie?  This is silly perhaps but deplorable?  You must have spent the better part of the last decade constantly seething.

The reactions by some people I encounter are a bit... uneven.

[redcommander]

If anything Halloween is the most gender equality friendly holiday.

[The Mikado]

There's only one good Halloween costume.  If you're not wearing horse head, you shouldn't do Halloween.

If you want, you can do sexy horse head.



My Halloween costume, now and forever.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This is the type of thing that 17-year old BRTD would actually think had validity to it. But only if said by someone in a band or with "scene" credentials, 17-year old BRTD would've probably laughed at this article in this context just as much as 27-year old BRTD is now.

[angus]

This is the type of thing that 17-year old BRTD would actually think had validity to it.

probably 17-year-old angus as well.

At 44, however, I'm just struck by how weird young Einstein looks more than anything else. 

[Zarn]

How ridiculous...  if the little girl wants to dress as a ballerina or a solider and vice versa for the boys... who cares?

I'm going to a Halloween as a 'Venetian Vampire'.. what does that tell you?

Sexist!

[opebo]

Halloween is definitely the sexiest holiday, though sometimes the girls running around in red bikinis with blinking Santa hats are pretty hot too.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Is it a good idea to dress up as Osama Bin Ladden for Halloween?

[nclib]

So, her daughters wanted princess costumes, and she refused because of her own social agenda. Deplorable.

Really?!  If this is "deplorable" then what would you call illegally invading another country based upon a lie?  This is silly perhaps but deplorable?  You must have spent the better part of the last decade constantly seething.

The reactions by some people I encounter are a bit... uneven.

Besides, plenty of parents prevent their kids from doing harmless things, based on their (parents') religious and cultural values. Not saying that is always right (or wrong), but I agree that the reactions are uneven.

As for the poll, probably not, since at least halloween is not intended to be serious.