The quickest costume is a trip to goodwill for a pseudo gypsy get-up with every bit of costume jewerly in drawer for the accessories.
Works even for big girls, come to think of it :)
Posted on 10/24/2006 1:08:40 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
In the 2004 teen comedy "Mean Girls," Lindsay Lohan's character, Cady, who just moved to the United States from Africa, observes that for American girls, Halloween seems to be nothing more than a day when girls can dress up in scandalous outfits and no one can say anything about it.
When mean girl Gretchen asks her friend Karen, who's barely clad in black lingerie and animal ears, what she's supposed to be, Karen points to the ears and says, "I'm a mouse. Duh."
The idea of sexy Halloween is not necessarily a new one. For years, Halloween parties have had their share of hot nurses and seductive pirates. But these are parties for adults, right?
Not anymore. With names like "Transylvania Temptress," "Handy Candy," "Major Flirt," and "Red Velvet Devil Bride," there is no doubt that costumes marketed to children and teens have become more suggestive.
Such costumes, which typically feature plunging necklines, fishnet stockings, knee-high boots and very short skirts, dominate the display at most costume shops and party supply stores, and parents are having a hard time avoiding them.
Robin Pese of Voorheesville, N.Y., the mother of two girls ages 11 and 14, walked out of a local party shop exasperated. "All the teen costumes are revealing. I walked out with nothing," she said. "You either have the adults or you have the kids, but there are no good ones for teens."
"Whatever happened to being ghosts, and just homemade costumes?" wondered Jennifer Dinova of Brunswick, N.Y., who was shopping for her daughters, ages 4 and 7. She said she was doing her best to steer her girls away from the midriff-baring get-ups and toward more practical costumes.
Even Lindsey DeVerry, 14, of Glenmont, N.Y., called the costumes for girls her age "a little weird."
Her friend Kacie Weatherhead, 13, of Guilderland, N.Y., elaborated. "They're a little racy," she said. "They all have really short skirts and are just really revealing."
Family therapist Lindy Guttman said: "It's a strange time we live in when half the doctors are women and half the lawyers are women, and all the little girls are prancing around in sexy costumes."
Guttman said girls today face "intense marketing" that didn't exist when she was a child or even when she was raising her own now-grown daughter.
Girls are bombarded from an early age with images that tell them to wear pink, love accessories and attract attention for being pretty and sexy, said Sharon Lamb, who wrote "Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers' Schemes" ($24.95; St. Martin's Press) with Lyn Mikel Brown.
When it comes to Halloween, Lamb said, the costumes marketed to girls severely limit the options they see for themselves. There's nothing inherently wrong with a little girl dressing up as a pretty princess, Lamb said, but the problem comes when such feminine, passive characters are all girls can envision for themselves. And she thinks it is that same ideology that pushes girls toward hyper-sexual costumes as they get older.
To Lamb, it is not about preventing girls from feeling sexy or exploring their emerging sexuality. Halloween is one night when girls can imagine themselves to be anything they want to be, Lamb said, and she thinks it's sad when what all the girls want to be are "hot chicks."
HOLDING SEXY BACK
Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown, who wrote "Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers' Schemes" ($24.95; St. Martin's Press), offer the following tips to parents who want to encourage their daughters to think beyond the risque costumes:
• Use this as an opportunity to talk to your daughter about sexuality and appropriate ways of exploring and expressing it. Talk to girls about what they fear as well as hope for in terms of intimacy and teach them there is more to sexuality than looking sexy for a guy.
• Avoid catalogs and packaged costumes. Instead, "imagine big" with your daughter, looking to her talents, interests and fears for ideas.
• Rather than getting attention for being pretty or sexy, encourage her to attract attention for other things, such as how unique and creative her costume is, or how scary she can be.
• If she loves the glitz and accessories of traditional "girlie" costumes, find creative ways to add those elements to other costumes.
• Add an element of power to the character she chooses. If she wants to be a fairy, let her imagine she's a fairy in charge of her whole kingdom. If she wants to express her sexuality, suggest that she be a toga-wearing goddess of wisdom. "If you're playing at being grown-up, think of all the things that being grown-up means," Lamb said.
ping
Any parent who lets their teen (or younger) dress as described in this article needs to be horse whipped.
LOL. I misread that as "homos".
What's next? The Jon-Benet Ramsey costume?
This is the gradual acceptance of paganism and hedonism that has become Halloween. One generation ago, my daughter was a princess, a hobo, and Casper the Ghost. If it were now, she'd be staying home and getting prepared for All Soul's Mass at our church.
This is just part of the "Erase God and All His Wonders" from American life. It is also the "GET THE CHILDREN" part of the socialism/feminism/homosexual agenda. N.O.W. that's true horror.
Oh please. Usual feminist garbage. Nobody except Hollywood and the mass media is encouraging young girls to want to look like hookers under the freeway overpass. It's not a "rebellion" against being pretty or feminine. It's mass marketing of something that the "feminist" groups essentially support, because they view it as violating ordinary American Judeo-Christian social and sexual ethics. Which it does, and which is fine with the "feminists".
yeah, part of this can be attributed to both parents working or single parent homes. no one is home to make a costume, so they hand the kid money and drop 'em off at the mall.
fortunately we don't have to deal too much with the skimpy outfits on kids up here in MI. too darn cold.
Well, gee Jennifer, why don't you go ahead and make your daughters a costume and have them wear that? Who's the parent here?
Luckily, we have all boys, and 2 are going to be a pirate and one a cowboy.
It is usually role playing. People dress as their secret desires. It is no wonder young girls today would choose over the top sexy costumes, they are taught by much of pop culture to seek this as what society values most.
And society DOES value it sadly for quite some time now, and the standards are slipping lower and lower.
"It's hard to be a good ghost in a fitted sheet..."
Here are some suggestions for truly scary and un-sexy costumes for girls:
1. Hillary Clinton (black pantsuit and mask)
2. Helen Thomas
3. Nancy Pelosi
4. Barbara Boxer
Well, one thing about living in Minnesota is that it's going to be in the low 30s on Halloween. Not too many scantilly clad teenagers trick or treating around here.
Last year, we counted 123 kids who stopped by. Time to go out for the candy.
yikes
I had no idea what Handy Candy was, so I looked it up on Google. Saw it, and was shocked to consider any young pre-teen or teen girl walking around at night dressed like that.
Sure... Look for the Mark Foley masks this year!
Back in the 50s, my girl cousin and I often dressed up as "fancy ladies." That usually meant raiding a box of Mom's castoffs in the basement and putting make up on each other. My boy cousins were usually "hobos." We had one lion costume between us and I think we each took 1 turn wearing it over the years. My cousins and I tramped through our neighborhood for candy and other treats like candied apples or fresh donuts and hot cocoa or cider. Parental involvement was next to nil, other than handing out candy and carving the pumpkin. There was no school involvement, no business involvement, no costume contests. It was a great night!
The quickest costume is a trip to goodwill for a pseudo gypsy get-up with every bit of costume jewerly in drawer for the accessories.
Works even for big girls, come to think of it :)
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