Women's Halloween Costumes Scare Me For The Wrong Reasons

Posted by Amanda Marcotte at 11:00 AM on October 8, 2007.

Amanda Marcotte: For some, Halloween is an opportunity to indulge sexism they might conceal during less drunken revelry-oriented times.

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This post, written by Amanda Marcotte, originally appeared on Pandagon

Ah, Halloween--for many, a time to have little ghoulish humor or glamor with the costuming. For others, an opportunity to indulge sexism they might conceal during less drunken revelry-oriented times. I've gotten a few emails about this costume:

SexyAnorexia

It's called "Sexy Anna Rexia", because nothing attracts the boys like broadcasting your indulgent attitudes towards a mental illness that strikes mostly women and is often fatal.

I went costume shopping today, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw this:

(click for larger version)

Just another unpleasant reminder that people think it's cute and funny that so many men hold women in bondage to be raped repeatedly for money. Now women can get in on the action of playing at being criminals who make a living selling women's bodies to sick, evil men and pocketing the profits. Usually the pimp costumes are for men and have no straightforward reference to the victims of pimps, but this costume is part of set where the women that pimps threaten, beat, control, and subject to rape are at least remembered:

(click for larger version)

Bruises about the face and neck are not included, though if you really want to have a laugh, you could always put them on with make-up.

I got some black wings. I have an vintage ankle-length gown that's black lace that I wore to my senior prom and have no real opportunities to wear, so I figured slap some wings and glitter on it and I can be a goth-looking fairy or something. True, it's not a costume that broadcasts contempt for women's suffering, so I'm not one of the cool kids, but it'll do. These costumes do unnerve me; I'm all about ghoulish humor for Halloween, but this isn't the traditional ghoulish humor about death, which is basically an equal opportunity bit of humor. This is about the fortunate targeting the abused and the mentally ill, which is an entirely different matter.

Tagged as: women, sexism, halloween

Amanda Marcotte co-writes the popular blog Pandagon.

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