As I have gotten older, finding a Halloween costume has become trickier. Once I got into third grade, most of the costumes seemed to get smaller as I got bigger. I can remember trying on costumes and feeling uncomfortable as a child. As I have gotten older, I have improvised on my costumes by using whatever I had lying around. It wasn’t until this year that I looked on an actual costume website and saw the shocking difference between boy’s costumes versus girl’s costumes.
Costumes for female adults/young adults all aim for sex appeal. Women’s costumes have much less clothing than the same costume as men’s costume. For example, up above you have “Ghostbuster” vs. “Sexy Ghost Fighter”. In the second picture, you have “Doctor” vs. “Nurse Hottie”.
Even costumes that depict children’s characters make women’s costumes objectifying and sexist. It is appalling to see that costume stores sexualizing baby costumes and beloved childhood characters. At stores like Party City, the only costumes you’ll find for women are designed to be “sexy” while most men’s costumes are not. Not all women want to go for “sexy” when dressing up for Halloween.
Even children’s costumes have a major difference when it comes to different genders. Girl’s costumes are often turned into “cuter” versions of boy’s costumes. In the pictures above, you can see how different girl’s costumes are from boy’s costumes. These costumes further show how women are sexualized, even from a young age, This sexualization of children is not only inappropriate, but it is just disgusting. Seeing these costumes from my perspective and age now makes me wonder how so many people never notice the difference between men and women in so many different aspects throughout our whole lives.
Even though sexism is a big part of our society today, it is just sad to see that it has such a big impact on one of my favorite holidays. I understand that some women may feel fine wearing these types of costumes and should wear what they want, but it is still unfair that these costumes force women to dress “sexy” when men’s costumes are normal costumes. Looking back at all these costumes, I know that I would feel uncomfortable in every women costume that has been shown. Women can’t pick an outfit that looks like a men’s costume. They don’t even make those types of costumes for women. Women should be able to feel comfortable and wear a costume that they like. We shouldn’t feel forced to wear a costume that makes us insecure or uncomfortable just because the costume we want only comes as “sexy”.