I love Halloween. I love dressing up, I love candy, and I love the colour orange. It’s really an ideal holiday. Last October while I was in Montreal, I got to talking with some of my fellow MA colleagues about the ridiculousness of women’s Halloween costumes. Why do so many adult women seem to feel it necessary to adhere to costume companies’ idea of a woman’s costume: the ’sexy’ versions of men’s costumes? I remember walking home from school one night a few days before the 31st and seeing a group of women ahead of me in mini skirts and thigh-high boots. One had a hook, another had cat ears, and the third had a feather duster. Ingenious.
In an attempt to protest (albeit subtly) the sexist nature of women’s costumes, my classmates and I tried to come up with the most inappropriate or absurd ’sexy’ versions of costumes as we could – I think a sexy fetus and some form of sexy vegetable won out in the end. While I didn’t end up covering myself in fishnets and placenta for Halloween that year, it still irked me how even an aspect of society that is seemingly innocent, like dressing up for Halloween, can be made misogynist by the propulsion to dress women up in cleavage-bearing tops and red lipstick. Halloween seems less like a night of scaring away ghouls and more like a demonstration of society’s perception of women: dolls, toys, bodies on display.
A few weeks ago Matt came home with a flyer for a party supply store in Winnipeg that featured the cover headline: “We’re bringing sexy back.” Inside was two pages filled with over 50 different models in women’s Halloween costumes, all of the ’sexy’ variety. Opening that flyer was like staring into the eyes of a panther: terrifyingly awesome. Some of the costumes were so ridiculous that I had to send the flyer to friends in Montreal. Stumped on what to go as this year? How about ’sexy Ghostbuster’? Or ’sexy Shopper’? Or maybe spice things up as ’sexy VIP Valet parker.’ If I saw someone out in one of those costumes I’m not sure whether I would be appalled or laugh hysterically.
Reading Feministing after lunch today brought the following gem to my attention:
Meet Ana Rexia! Not only will this costume serve to mock an illness that has taken the lives of countless women due to unattainable notions of the perfect female body idealized by patriarchal society, but your wearing it will also perpetuate those ideals as you spend the night flaunting yourself for the benefit of the male gaze! Kill two birds with one stone, and look hot doing it.
I went to the site that apparently sells this piece of shit, and found another costume that would make any woman’s family proud:
Who doesn’t want to win a wet t-shirt contest? It’s like the women’s version of the Pulitzer.
As easy as it is to laugh at these appalling costumes, the fact is that someone will buy them, wear them, and fail to see the absolute destruction they are causing to any semblance of respect for women today. While I have no problem with a woman wanting to show off her body because she’s proud of herself, these costumes, it seems, only serve to denigrate women, characterizing them as something other than human.
And this is only one day of the year. Now, does anyone want to suggest that feminism is unnecessary? That men and women are equal?
Think again: Warner Brothers’ head of production, Jeff Robinov, has recently announced that they will no longer be producing any films with women leads. Why? Because the women actors in two recent films (Nicole Kidman in The Invasion and Jodi Foster in The Brave One) that did poorly at the box office are the reason for the films’ failures. If (and I say this knowing it would never happen) the same were said about films with male leads, there would be public outrage at even the thought of ceasing to make films with men in leading roles. The logic that the gender of the lead actor can affect the film’s box office sales is absolutely ridiculous yet, in this case, Robinov’s announcement is hardly news. Where are all the female actors? Why aren’t they speaking up? WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?
Perhaps this year I’ll dress up as a sexy Jeff Robinov.
2 Comments
October 10, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Lighten up a little bit. Is this a good example? No. But what on Halloween is? You mean that when I went dressed as Andy Warhol (cross-dressing.. I am a girl) and still got faced and wasted and fell all over the place and flashed people it’s somehow better because I wasn’t dressed up as Anna Rexia? Should I be worried about my idea to go as Victoria Beckham? I wouldn’t say that anorexia or wet t-shirt contests are things to be lauded, but can’t we just laugh at ourselves every once in a while?
October 10, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Sure you can laugh at yourself, that’s the fun of Halloween! I plan on it, and I will also likely get hammered and make an ass out of myself. But my point (which perhaps wasn’t clear as, to be honest, I didn’t expect anyone to read this but me!) was that mocking what is not just a fatal illness, but one that is a result of the pressures placed on women to look ‘perfect’ all the time (and an idea of perfect created by and serving men, ultimately) only really serves to perpetuate those ‘perfect’ ideals and the notion that women’s value comes from men’s approval of their appearance. An Andy Warhol costume doesn’t, in my mind, convey the same message, whether you’re female or not, hammered or sober.