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? 

[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.

[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. 

[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. 

[angus]

It's also about candy. It's the only time of year I even eat candy anymore.

And because municipalities and counties never took to putting Jack-0-Lanterns on courthouse lawns, we never had the deluge of Grinches saying, "hey, you can't celebrate All Hallows Eve with public money" and ruin it the way they do with the various pagan trappings of Christmas.

Well, my son wants me to go trick-or-treat with him tonight, so I went to the Goodwill Store yesterday and got a pair of black women's Capri pants, and a frilly white shirt, some dark stockings, and a nice black vest, loose with a big brass buckle on front.  At the dollar tree I got a black eyepatch and a large plastic, but realistic-looking, cutlass, a big loop earring, and a black bandanna with skull and crossbones on the front.  It all makes for a nice pirate outfit with black Doctor Marten's airware boots.  I wore it to class today.  I'd spent all of nine dollars on my outfit, and so I wanted to get as much mileage out of it as possible.

My son's school parade is at 2:30, so I'll stop by there and watch it.  The mall near my house has treats from 4 till 6 pm, then the neighborhood trick-or-treat time is from 6 till 8 pm.  

Last night we carved a face on a pumpkin and put a candle in it.  For the front porch.  I guess my wife will stay at home and pass out tooth decay.  It's all good.

Speaking of sexism, my entire outfit, except for the boots and accessories, are all women's wear.  The pants, vest, shirt, and socks are from the ladies section of Goodwill.  I sort of expected to have to get the Capri pants there, because men's Capri pants haven't been fashionable since the early 80s, but I'd really expected to find a frilly pirate shirt and vest in the men's stuff.  I was looking around, and an associate walked up to me and asked, "Can I help you?"  She looked like she was about 18.  I asked, "Do you have any frilly, lacy men's shirts?"  And she looked at me strangely.  And I said, "you know, like you'd wear with a tuxedo.  In the 70s."  And she still looked confused.  And I said, "Think Wayne Newton in Las Vegas."  And I snapped my fingers and hummed some tunes.  She still looked confused, so I figured that it all went over her head.  I guess those just don't exist anymore.  Man, I still remember my first tuxedo.  I was seven years old and it was 1974.  It had a light blue, polyester bell-bottomed pant and a light blue polyester jacket with huge Disco Stu lapel.  Light blue polyester vest too, with big golden buttons.  Very fashionable then.  Black platform shoes.  Musta been 3-inch heels.  Very chic.  And my shirt was very frilly.  Huge Blue bow tie.  Clip on.  It was the height of fashion.  Fashion was so fun back in the 70s.  And in the 80s as well, when I was in high school.  Different, but just as fun.

Anyway, none of those things exist anymore, so I had to shop ladies wear for my pirate outfit.  Luckily Iowa has quite a few women large enough to provide me a pirate outfit that fits.  

[angus]

I went as my religion teacher (info, background, & hopefully photos coming soon).

Nice. 

I did the pirate I mentioned.  Big hit in class today.

My son did Barney at school, and the mummy in our neighborhood tonight. 

I just blew out the candle in the pumpkin, and carried it inside.  Glad it's all over.

Ever notice that Halloween is only once a year, but we have to go to the dentist twice a year?  Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.

[angus]

we're still waiting for the photos, cathcon.

[angus]

Wait how is Christmas sexist?

You could argue its the epitome of traditional gender roles.

I'll drive the sleigh and oversee the toymaking by the elves while you show up at photo-ops and fill my pipe.  Hmmm.  It doesn't really sell magazines.  

Boys as Ninjas and superheros and girls as Snow White sells magazines.

Nowadays you can buy a mullet wig or a blood-stained war axe.  You should see these stores that open up in the mall in mid-September and stay open for six weeks.  I never really thought of them as sexist, but they're definitely kitschy.  The one nearest me has a huge spider with red LED eyes that jumps at you when you walk in the door.  Scared the hell out of me the first time.  I think I let escape an audible cry and experienced immediate humiliation as the high school girls working the register giggled at my dismay.