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.
To get paid for far more than he is worth?
I know exactly what you mean. Ever see 'The Temptress Maiden'?
I took my little girl, one of my GD, and GS to wally world for costumes about three weeks ago and my 8 yr old GD grab me by my hand and dragged to this costume she had to have. I looked at it and then her and asked in shock, are you full of shit? Her mouth fell open and she gasped---maw maw. It just slipped out. I couldn't believe the costumes they had for little girls, it was disgusting.
I ended up getting her a vampire costume.
"If she wants to express her sexuality, suggest that she be a toga-wearing goddess of wisdom."
Yeah,lady-there's going to be a lot of those running up and down the sidewalk.
Our soon to be three year old granddaughter loves pink. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she replied "pink" BUT she terrorizes her big(4 YO) brother with spiders. She is going to be Glenda the good witch. Brother is going as the cowardly Lion (he has a thatch of blonde curls his mom is letting him grow just for his mane) and baby sister (3 months) is going as - I have no idea. LOLL All the costumes made by mom as you can not find any decent ones. I suspect when they get older she will do the same. Granddaughter's mom and her dad would never let her go out dressed as a tart.
:-]
Real busy around here lately. Barely have time to sneak on and see if WW 3 (or is it 4?) has started.
At the local grocery store in my rural red county in a blue state, saw kids' Halloween costumes on a rack. I noticed a "Little Flame Dancer", I kid you not. What's next - "Little 10 Dollar Hooker"? Or "Little Toothless Meth Tweaker"?
"Does correcting a Yoda quote qualify me as a geek?"
"Just to throw you a curve -- Christianity, the faith, has nothing to do with a pagan holidays. The Christian Church (i.e., Catholicism and the CoE) had everything to do with incoporating pagan holidays.
"
Not really a curve. At the time that the pagan holidays were being coopted, the Roman Catholic Church WAS Christianity in that part of the world.
There was no other Christianity in France, Germany, and England. Ireland and Scotland, too. The Roman Catholic Church, led by whatever Pope was in power at the time was the entire and sole voice of Christianity at that time and place.
You can pick nits and claim that the Reformation brought about true Christianity, but that seems specious to me, since it was a very latecomer in the world of Christianity.
The Eastern version of Christianity did not play a role in that part of the world, nor did the Coptic Christians.
When Rome came to Europe as conquerors, it brought Roman Catholicism with it. There was no other Christianity at the time.
"At the local grocery store in my rural red county in a blue state, saw kids' Halloween costumes on a rack. I noticed a "Little Flame Dancer", I kid you not. What's next - "Little 10 Dollar Hooker"? Or "Little Toothless Meth Tweaker"?
"
I have no idea. In my neighborhood, which is extremely diverse, ethnically, I don't see any of these costumes. Mostly, it's princesses and some version of some video game character I don't recognize. The odd home-made costume that I don't recognize shows up, too.
I haven't seein any risque costumes, and all the middle school and older kids seem to show up in street clothes, not even making an attempt at a costume.
Perhaps it is different in your area. What sort of costumes do you see?
hey! What's that smell?....BRUNO!!
Oh, sorry boss! Must've been the chili!
==========
My personal favorite:
Tip O'Neil's 3D House of Representatives
I think they misspelled candy STRIPER...you know, one of those volunteer workers in hospitals. That's what they call them...candy striper, because they used to wear uniforms with pink diagonal stripes, like a peppermint stick.
I think the adult costume place needs a proofreader.
Well...if you consider teenagers to be kids, I suppose it is. Look at it, then go to the mall and look at what the teenaged girls are wearing. This costume isn't all that bad, in comparison, I think.
What is "HANDY CANDY?"
I had an 8 year old neighbor when I was a kid who dressed up as a PLAYBOY bunny (logo, tail and all).
On December 25th, I will once again be celebrating...Saturnalia!
Really? I'll be in California, celebrating Christmas with my family...four generations of it, on my parents' citrus farm.
In doing so, I'll be celebrating the same holiday that 95% of the country is celebrating on that day.
I celebrate Christmas, because the people around me do. I celebrate their holiday because they are people I love. It is a family holiday for me, and the reason for it is relatively unimportant. Among my family are Christians, agnostics, and atheists. We all celebrate Christmas.
As for Saturnalia...well, it has been a long time since the Roman gods were worshipped by anyone. I do have some very good friends who call themselves pagans. I'll be celebrating with them on December 21 or 22...I can never remember which day is the solstice. We'll eat, drink, laugh, and maybe even sing. But that's a few days before Christmas. I'm no pagan, but what the heck?! I celebrate because my good friends celebrate.
I don't know the dates for Hannukah this year, but my wife and I are good friends with a Jewish couple who came here from Russia about 10 years ago. We'll be getting together with them, too...I just don't know the date yet.
Being an atheist means you get to celebrate everyone's religious holiday with them. It's great.
Teenagers don't trick or treat. They go to Halloween parties in their costumes.
The stripes are vertical, not diagonal, on a real Candy Striper's uniform.
Some of the trim at the waist and on the pinafore top is set on the horizontal, but none of the stripes are on the diagonal like a barber pole or spiral-type peppermint stick.
Let's not forget Festivus! A Festivus for the rest of us! LOL
Well, me and my family do the "airing of grievances," although at least now I can beat my father at the "feats of strength."
None of these seem likely to be much fun.
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