Posted on 10/30/2004 7:10:56 PM PDT by ppaul
Pimp (pimp) n. One who provides means and opportunities for unlawful sexual intercourse; a panderer, v. to act as a pimp or pander; to pander, to scrounge off; to take advantage of.
— Oxford English Dictionary
ST. LOUIS — As Halloween revelers head into this weekend of festivities, they can expect to see lots of pimps, or at least people pretending to be pimps. Dressed in colorful, often-garish costumes will be teenage pimps, adult pimps, female pimps, even children dressed as pimps, thanks to a Los Angeles-based firm that has been selling thousands of the outfits for the past two years. Some may come knocking on your door with the traditional, "trick or treat." If not, you certainly will be able to find hundreds, maybe even thousands at the dozens of "Pimp and Hooker" balls taking place this weekend, such as the four in the Baltimore area, the fourth annual "Pimp and Ho' Halloween Bash" in Chicago, the seventh annual "Pimp and Prostitute" Ball in Houston, or the ones in Detroit or Las Vegas.
Pimping, to the dismay of some, has become a part of popular culture — from rapper Nelly's energy drink Pimp Juice, which has sold more than 4 million units worldwide, to the hit MTV television series "Pimp My Ride" to a Web site that sells "Pimp and Ho" costumes for children. Pimping has changed from a word that once described a profession that even hard-core criminals considered near the bottom of their occupational ladder to something hip.
"I wouldn't say it's a positive thing," said Kimberly Osorio, editor of Vibe, the nation's leading music and culture magazine for young adults. "The word is always going to be defined as what it has been, however, there are ways that you can use the word positively, and that's what hip-hop has done over the years."
The cultural embrace of the term crosses lines of color, class and age.
It includes advertising executives, accountants, nurses, truck drivers and others from suburban Baltimore who for the past four years have gathered twice annually for their Pimp and Hooker Ball at Padonia Station in Timonium, Md.
It includes a plethora of music artists — from white rocker Kid Rock to black rapper 50 Cent — whose songs extol the virtues of being a pimp.
It includes "Pimp My Bride," a headline on the CBS News Web site for a column about marriage reality shows and the new Japanese PIMP wristwatch at a Japanese novelty store, TokyoFlash. It includes Web sites, such as phatpimpclothing.com and pimphats.com, where people can buy pimp and whore garb. In white suburbia, prostitute theme parties have become the rage in private homes.
The trend includes Judith Southard, a makeup artist and esthetician at Lemon Spalon in upscale Central West End in St. Louis.
"The No. 1 makeup look that I'm doing for Halloween this year is of prostitutes," Southard said.
Not everyone is happy about this heightened interest in pimps. Nelly has had to defend the name he chose for his energy drink, particularly when some black organizations threatened to boycott it.
"In hip-hop, we take words that are negative and turn them into a positive," Nelly said last month. "These are words kids hear every day in the neighborhoods, so let's turn them into positives. I got a little son who's 5 years old. He'll come in and I'll ask how he did on the coloring test, and he'll say, 'I pimped it, man, I got an A.' It's not derogative."
Jonathan Weeks designed the Pimp and Ho Costumes for Brands On Sale, a Los Angeles based-company that sells costumes, appliances, jewelry and a wide variety of other items primarily on the Internet. He and his company have taken heat for coming up with the outfits.
"Anyone who sells this crap to children or lets them wear it should be shot in the face," Chris wrote in a posted message after reviewing the product on the Internet.
"I AM VERY ANGRY," Hashim wrote.
"I hate it enough when it's frat boys and sorority girls, but children ... ," Anne wrote. "What awful parents."
Weeks says he made the costumes in response to customer demand.
"We just give the people what they want," he said. "We're not in the business of exploiting children. This is just a costume."
But law-enforcement officials and social workers, particularly those whose job it is to arrest real pimps and in many cases actually rescue women and girls from prostitution, find it appalling.
"I don't think any of this is funny at all," said Lois Lee, president and founder of Children of the Night, a Van Nuys, Calif.-based nonprofit that rescues children from prostitution. "What these guys do is not funny at all. There's nothing hip or funny about torturing children, and that's what they do."
Sgt. Joe Delia of the Maryland Heights, Mo., Police Department said he, too, is irked by playful references to pimps and prostitutes.
"When I hear of these pimps and whores balls," he said, "I think it's just ignorance. They don't understand the issue here. Would people find it offensive if they were having slavery parties? Because it's the same thing."
Not so, said Brad Altman, a concert and event promoter who expects 1,000 people at his Pimp and Ho Halloween bash today in downtown Chicago. Showtime will be filming the party for its television series "Family Business."
"I do understand the relationship between a real pimp and a real prostitute, and that's not a joking matter, but on the other hand, this is a Halloween theme party," said Altman, 43. "There's no harm intended. It's a reason to come dressed up. I would agree if this was offensive, if people were coming to this party and slapping their girlfriends and wives around. This party is not to objectify women."
Link to article: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=pimps30&date=20041030&query=pimp
Yo!
Well darn. Had I known that there was this popular alternative to my kids' scarecrow & angel costumes I surely would have gotten the pimp costume for the brother and the ho costume for the little sister. /sarcasm
Relax!!! It's halloween for goodness sake.
My youngest dressed as a pirate. Pillage, plunder, rifle and loot! Drink up me hearties, yo ho!
Yeah, that's different.
Mine's Spiderman this year. Glad he's back and so well loved to a new generation. ;)
I also love SpongeBob--can't wait for the movie to come out!
This isn't just a recent thing, they were doing "Pimp and Ho" parties when I was in college almost twenty years ago.
}:-)4
This is bad stuff indeed. What the hell is wrong with parents who buy this crap for their kids? And where is the outrage? It doesn't have to be religious outrage or moral outrage, just the outrage of commonsense.
There were tons of Spidermen (all trying to kung-fu each other) at my son's school and more princesses than a Miss America pagaent.
I did see two Sponge-Bob's.
Let me tell you about Halloween costume sickness in the DC suburbs on the eve of election.
My neighbors just hosted a Halloween party for their friends, and their kids. The parents were all in family friendly costumes....except one set of parents who are huge lefties and Kerry supporters. She came in dragging her husband on a leash. She was a prison guard at Abu Gharib...he was her prisoner.
And to think we opted for Teddy and Edith Roosevelt. Our orginial plan was to have me wear my "W" t-shirt under a burqa. But in the interest of not angering our Kerry-supporting neighbors, and frightening the children, we went with sometime more genteel.
I guess some people are taking "trick or treat" to a new level...
Ha! That doesn't surprise me (the Spider-men)
The Power Rangers beat out the Spider-men at our school. ;)
BTW, SpongeBob SquarePants rocks. :)
How is it possible for a five year old not to pimp his coloring test?
I read that Spiderman is the most popular costume this year--and one of my three boys will indeed be Spiderman!
The worst "costume" I've seen so far was at my town's "Downtown Trick or Treat night" on Thurs--an eight year old boy wearing a T shirt that said "This is my costume; now give me the damn candy."
So sad, on a little 3rd grader no less.
"Well darn. Had I known that there was this popular alternative to my kids' scarecrow & angel costumes I surely would have gotten the pimp costume for the brother and the ho costume for the little sister. /sarcasm"
LOL. Mine were Buzz Lightyear (3 yr old boy) & a cow (23 month girl) this year.
Frightening? Frightening the kids would be dressing up as Terayza or Hillary.
How is it possible for a five year old not to pimp his coloring test?
Why do grown people like to dress up as weird things anyway?
I feel your joy and pain with having three boys. (See my homepage for proof.)
My youngest is in 2nd grade and has a classmate (girl) who wears make-up. Yeesh!
"She came in dragging her husband on a leash. She was a prison guard at Abu Gharib...he was her prisoner."
I suspect there was something else going on there, but would have been too afraid to ask.
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