*Please proceed with caution, this article may have triggers*
Halloween is the most wonderful time of the year for some, including me, and for others Halloween can be a complete nightmare. While Halloween is, personally, my favorite holiday, I know many who suffer through the holiday. Each year more and more offensive Halloween costumes are released, these costumes not only offend people, but can also trigger people. For example, some Halloween costumes are based around different religions and cultures. Can we ever forget some of the terrible costumes that have been released in the past years? Some of these costumes implied that muslims were terrorists, or involved people wearing suicide bomber look alike vests. But this year, Blockbustercostumes.com released a prosthetic for Halloween entitled “Cruel World Suicide Razor Blade Wrist Wound Latex Theater Quality Costume Scar Make Up”. Just to add to it, the picture they included showed a person applying a razor blade to the fake wound, as if they’re cutting themselves with it.
Did you just gasp in disbelief too? I couldn’t believe my eyes at the picture I was seeing. According to mentalhealthaerica.net, about 4% of adults in the United States self-harm, with approxmiately 17-35% of college students being involved in some form of self harm. What makes this costume even worse, is the knowledge that about 80% of those who self harm cut themselves with razors, or with other similar objects, shown in the prosthetics informational page.
Self harm is no laughing matter. Most people self harm due to a feeling of emptiness and loneliness. They often use it as a way to cope with their pain, whether that pain be due to prolonged depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or current life events. It is disrespectful for companies to advertise this vulnerability and destructive behavior as something that people would want to “show off” on Halloween.
Halloween is meant as a fun time of the year where people are able to be people, creatures, and things that they’ve always wanted to be. Those who actually self harm are able to be magically creatures they’ve always dreamed of, and be characters they’ve idolized and looked up to through all of their pain. Now, Block Buster Costumes are trying to make money off of people’s painl for a prosthetic that could have easily been advertised in a non-offensive matter. It simply could have been advertised as a wound. Not a cruel world wound. Not a self harm wound. A wound. That’s it. From there the prosthetic should be able to sell itself.
Jamie Tworkowski, founder and CEO of To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit dedicated to mental health awareness and advocacy, spoke out on Twitter about the prosthetic. “Self-injury and suicide are not funny. Please stop selling these.” The company took the product down on Monday, October 24th, stating on both their Facebook and Twitter, “To those contacting us about our suicide costume we’ve removed the offending product from our site. It shouldn’t have been marketed as such.” Hopefully the company will make a more professionally and professional apology, their social media post is nowhere near sufficient. Self harm and suicide are no laughing matter. Nobody wants to dress up as someone hurting that badly.
If you or someone you know is suffering, please reach out to the resources below:
Suicide Hotline – Call 1-800-273-8255
TWLOHA Help Page – https://twloha.com/find-help/local-resources/