This afternoon I took the children to pick out Halloween costumes at the dreaded Party City. I am not and never have been one of those handy mamas who can whip up a costume from scratch; one year I tried to make a skeleton costume for kindergartener Henry and he came home in tears because everyone thought he was a fairy princess. But I digress.
Anyway, as we walked up and down the aisles of costumes (Ninja! Police officer! Dracula!) I noticed a trend: ALL of the costumes for women had a twist. They weren't just Dracula costumes, they were SLUTTY Dracula costumes. It wasn't just a pirate wench, but an extremely SLUTTY pirate wench. Female skeletons had cleavage. Female monsters wore garters and stilettos.
In Party City-Land, witches wear miniskirts, thigh high boots, and carry bullwhips. Forget those naughty French Maid costumes of years past, today those with the raciest sensibilities can go straight to the Playboy (TM) costume rack.
I kid you not; Party City features a line of Playboy-designed women's costumes.
It got me to thinking how it does seem like increasingly, Halloween (my least favorite holiday. I hate dressing up or dressing other people up) has become an excuse for women to dress like tarts. see nothing wrong with this; I just think it's an interesting observation that LOTS of us must feel like the only time we can safely do this - without community disapproval, is on Halloween. It must be a secret fantasy of more than a few women who normally shop at Land's End.
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I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
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33 comments:
I am the plain jane, Halloween Slut. Just a couple of days ago we had this very conversation at work, to which I said, and looking back I realize it was a little too loudly, "I've been every kind of slut there is!" A note to would be loud talkers, don't say things like this. Everyone in my office heard me, and no one really knew what I was talking about. All they know now, is I have been or might have been slutty at various times in my life. Yay.
I love Halloween and always have. But I do hate the slutty Party City costumes, especially since I have a 10-year-old daughter who wonders why all the other moms let their daughters dress up like "slutty fairy" or "trampy witch" with the belly shirt, and I won't let her.
Meanwhile, my 7-year-old son just wants to be a Power Ranger or Ninja every single year.
It drives me nuts. I tell them we can whip together an "elf" or "cowboy" costume at home, but they want "store bought costumes" like everyone else - which set me back $72 this week.
We generally go through what we have on hand and then head to the thrift stores and dollar store to find remaining items to put costumes together. I'm not a seamstress but I don't like the bought ones - especially the past few years.
I'm notorious for dressing exactly like myself and then when asked why I didn't dress up, saying "Oh but I did, I'm (insert obscure author)." No one ever calls me on it. :)
This year my children and some friends are going trick-or-treating on horseback, so it's double the task trying to outfit kids AND ponies. :)
billie
Btw, the disney store has costumes at 50% off right now. Nice, wholesome costumes of decent quality at roughly $20.
I have had this same conversation. I had the hardest time finding my 4 yr old a costume. Everything is slutty. There is not just a witch, it's a skanky witch! So frustrating!
I love Halloween. My appearance these days screams "Send Land's End catalog!", but I'm not into slutty costumes. I prefer quirky,funny getups that inspire "why-didn't-I-think-of-that?" comments.
My sister and her family are going as "hippie family" because they will not permit their older child, a young daughter, to dress in those whorish costumes. I was just talking to sis about this very thing last night.
Halloween is second only to Christmas as to my favorite holidays, and this is by far my favorite time of the year. It's sad to hear that we adults are once again foisting sexuality on our young children, seemingly for the sport of it (or the profit of it, depending how cynical you are).
So sis and her family are going to walk around their conservative neighborhood dressed like a band of hippies. And instead of "trick or treat," my young niece has decided that she is going to say, "All we are saying is give peace a chance."
I love Laura Linger's comment! The girl going around saying "Give Peace a Chance..." too funny!
Anyway, my kids love halloween, and we do it sans trips to costume stores. My kids know that their dressing up depends on their own creativity. If I sew something, it's a very small something, and it's their idea. This year my kids were at first going to be jedis, and I bought them stuff at the thrift store. Now they're wanting to be elves, with capes. I make capes--it's the only thing I sew really well--but my daughter is going to sew her own cape and tunic to be an elf. And, as usual, we're usually working on these things at the last moment. And they've been known to change their minds about what to be on Halloween day!
But they love "being" someone else for an evening. My kids have been known to dress up all year round. I've been stopped on the street and asked, isn't it a little early for halloween? And I'm always totally mystified. Is there some law again dressing up at other times of the year? My kids certainly don't think so. They were pirates all summer.
I love Halloween. My costumes the last four years were revealing (I tell myself that a person with enough class doesn't look "slutty," and I'd like to keep up that delusion). I've told people that I want to dress this way "while I can still get away with it." I need to enjoy my 20s; it doesn't last forever.
However, if I DID have kids, I'd probably dread Halloween too, because while I quit purchasing costumes from local stores years ago, I have noticed that there aren't many wholesome costumes to choose from. That would REALLY bother me if I had a girl-child.
"give peace a chance" eh? I would be REALLY pissed if I had a loved one serving overseas and these people were going around my neighborhood using halloween to foist off what is really just their opinion on people. I honestly dont know what to think about this whole war thing. I am not totally sold on it but I also am not about to jump on the full speed ahead peace bandwagon. maybe theres stuff I dont know on either side and as we all know what actually makes it into the news may in fact be a far cry from reality. on either end. call me a skeptic, call me a cynic but I would not be terribly pleased to see halloween turned into a political statement. its all about the candy. there is a time and a place for standing your ground. I would feel extremely resentful if someone shared that sentiment with me as they went door to door. I would NOT feel particularly peaceful towards THEM. yes, its a free country and we have freedom of speech but that doesnt mean that you dont use some discretion as to when to go off shooting your big yip.
btw..I have noticed the slutty costumes but I must live in a parallel universe because I have also noticed some pretty OK costumes. one of my kids is going to be some anime creature from dragonballz and the other, at 13 is waaay too old for a genuine costume. she is just wearing some cool clothes that are a bit different and spray painting her hair. in her "real costume" years she had no trouble finding hippies, disney characters, tweety among others, all decent. I have made her a couple of costumes, one a fifties get up and the other a nifty pirate shirt last year. I always tell them I wont get them anything unless they make up their mind and once they have it they have it. we start early, beginning of Oct and thats that. no last minute changes. no running around freaking out. they have learned there are some choices you have to live with so they think about it. ditto on the parties. I refuse to get sucked into taking stuff back all over the place or buying multiples because they change their minds. you make up your mind and if its not made up we dont buy it till it IS made up.
um, duh Elizabeth...its QUITE weird for a nine year old and a twelve year old to be dressing up in public. my daughter went thru a Dorothy red shoes fixation in kindergarten and my son had a spell where all he wore was superhero jammies. but heres the key: they were LITTLE KIDS. they were not almost teenagers. I looked at your web page and you are one weird family. your boy looks like a girl .I honestly thought your son was a little girl until I read the print under it. my son does weird stuff with his hair, I figure let em get it out of their system while they are young..but he doesnt do stuff that makes him look like a girl. he's all boy. and my gosh....what are you and your husband thinking allowing a homeless man with a violent history to come into your home with your children there? Jesus tells us to be WISE as well as loving. where is the love in exposing your kids to that kind of risk? I knew some do gooders who let a homeless guy live with them for a while and he wound up molesting their daughter. you just dont take chances with your kids. even in Gods name. I go to a recovery program and I am all for giving people a leg up, everyone deserves a chance but my gosh dont be stupid about it and put your precious children at risk.
finally I cant believe someone would go so far for the environment. you probably waste more gas trying to find alternatives to shop at rather than just buying whats close and available. if you feel that strongly about it lobby the companies. but your boycotting probably has NO effect. and heres a tip fatty: LOSE SOME WEIGHT. if you eat a little meat it fills you up so much better and you dont have to gorge to feel full. I couldnt believe your story about accidentally eating the chicken. give me a break. you were wise to not say anything to management though. although you might have given them some amusement on an otherwise boring shift. by the way (and this is true, you can google it) it was in the paper today that FAT PEOPLE are bad for the environment..seems it uses more gas to haul around a fatty than a normal weight person. and letting a preteen girl be a vegan? well you wont be around when she gets osteoporosis so what do you care?
you know, extreme food habits have recently been added as a category of eating disorders.
you have just provided me with more proof that nutty crunchy attachment parenting is a sign of mental imbalance. anyone who has to take stuff to such an extreme is guilty of a lot of black and white thinking. which is NOT healthy. its all either/or. no middle ground at all. either you are a card carrying weirdo like you and your ilk or you are some cold "detachment' parenter who doesnt care about their kids.
Anonymous:
Just so you know, the little girl's uncle...my brother, and my sister's brother...just re-deployed last Friday for another tour of duty over in Iraq. He is Kuwait as I type this.
Anyone who has a loved one over there fighting in AWOL George's war for oil that DOESN'T want peace in our world should, quite frankly, have his or her head examined. That is, after they are checked for the presence of a heart, first.
So shut your cakehole.
http://lauralinger.blogspot.com/2006/10/want-instant-way-to-end-war-in-iraq.html
http://lauralinger.blogspot.com/2006/10/for-andy-wherever-he-is-tonight.html
http://lauralinger.blogspot.com/2006/10/andys-family.html
http://lauralinger.blogspot.com/2006/10/always-someone-marches-brave.html
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
so glad someone died and left you and your opinion as God. I have quite a few friends over there. there is a huge difference of opinion about this. I am not totally sure myself HOWEVER I am not going to jump on some bandwagon just for the sake of having it all neatly tied up.
I stand by the fact I would not appreciate political propoganda on my doorstoop on halloween. there is a time and a place for it (the letters to the editor page for instance, ones little spot in cyberspace for another) but NOT going to door to door in a neighborhood where a lot of people are not going to appreciate it. so when someone expresses a difference of opinion as they go out trick or treating are your relatives going to tell the dissidents to "shut their cakeholes"??
I'm so sorry that you think that the concept of "peace" is political. What is it about peace that people like you find so abhorrent, so threatening? Please...enlighten me. But you know what? Don't do it here. You know where my blog is. Come over to Another Goddamned Liberal so you can enlighten all of us.
"I have quite a few friends over there." Allow me to assure you, friends are easier to lose than brothers.
screw you Laura. I suppose you think we should have minded our own business with Hitler too. what sickens me about liberals is that they cant get it through their thick heads that unpleasant or not, sometimes defending ourselves is neccessary. look it up in the dictionary. its spelled "hero". got it? good. my father in law lost a brother in WW II and i have yet to hear HIM praising the likes of Cindy Sheehan and her ilk.
I am sure it is frightening for you to have your brother over there but he chose to sacrifice if need be for his country. so that you and bigmouths like yourself can continue to have the freedom to babble on about whatever your opinion is. now I am not going to pretend to know for sure whether we belong in Iraq. but I dont have a problem with the concept of war IF its neccessary. and unlike you I am the mother of a son. so its not like its some immaterial issue that I may never confront. would I relish the thought of him fighting? no, but if he chose to do it I would be proud of the character qualities instilled in him. would you feel differently if your brother was serving in the peace corp in some dangerous third world country? working as a journalist in the middle east? doing something you admire in principal? somehow I have a feeling that if some liberal news agency had sent your brother over there as a reporter you wouldnt be screaming at them about what monsters they are. no you would probably feel that if something happened to him then he would have spent his life doing the right thing. one of my kids has expressed an interest in that sort of thing and yeah, its rather a scary thought but no way am I going to stand in the way of my kid doing the right thing. do you think life is only about saving your own hiney? do you not think there is ever a time for one to put their life on the line for something important? somehow i dont get the idea with you people that this is about whether we belong in this particular war but about the idea that war, in general, is a concept to be avoided no matter what the price that is paid for avoiding it. as far as this particular case, I dont believe what I read in the media. doesnt matter the source. the ultra right is just as biased as the left. I know stuff is very very selective. and a lot of people hate Bush, are fixated on hating Bush and if you dont think that affects what hits the papers and how it is framed, guess again. I hardly have the man on a pedestal but I am not prepared to assume that the media view of the man reflects the reality. maybe it does and maybe it doesnt. I certainly dont think he is any worse than Billy Bob from Arkansas. did you know Clinton made some HUGE mistakes (maybe because he was pondering how soon it would be until his dick got sucked off again) that helped set the stage for 9/11. oh probably you have heard that and you probably just think its some right wing conspiracy theory. these people ALL screw up big time. I sure wouldnt want that responsibility. I am not prepared to go screaming around that we absolutely should not be there when I just really do not know.
and come off it, peace IS a political statement. what would YOU call it as an alternative? it involves politicians and political actions so therefore I would have to say it qualifies. if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, walks like a duck, well, I guess theres a pretty good chance its a duck.
I'm not particularly interested in providing fodder for a bunch of liberals over at your web site. and besides I dont have that kind of time. unlike many of the blog addicted I have a life. no thank you.
"I'm not particularly interested in providing fodder for a bunch of liberals over at your web site."
Oh, but you have.
oh whatever. I have better ways to spend my time. talk all you want. what I meant was I really dont have the time to get sucked into it with a bunch of closed minded idiots whose minds are already made up.
you obviously, out of concern for your brother, are coping by believing everything the leftist media filters to you. and thats that.
like I said, I really do not know what we are supposed to be doing about this but because I know damned well how the media works in this country, I take most of it with a humongous grain of salt.
and I still would not be thrilled to open the door to some political propogandists. of course I probably wouldnt let them know that because I would be afraid that dissent might be met with a very nonviolent peaceful keying of my car or other such destruction.
The kids are dressing up as hippies. John Lennon was a hippie. John Lennon wrote and sang "Give Peace a Chance." Sheesh. This was supposed to be about slutty costumes.
I totally agree with Katie re: Party City. I was there last night and an older teenage girl wanted a costume that exposed most of the buttocks and the store was sold out of it. Men were also standing and staring, mouths agape, at the slutty female costumes. It was gross.
We have those special Halloween stores that take over abandoned stores that have gone out of business over the previous year. Most of the stuff, you could get at Big Lots for far, far cheaper.
I went in the other day, looking for another fiber optic pumpkin, and was horrified to see what passes as a "French Maid" costume now. Now, I am not all that familiar with the clothing choices of French servants, but I don't recall the top being held up by two spaghetti straps made of transparent material.
"For Ages 12 & Up."
oh you mean THAT John Lennon??? the one who was the total waste of oxygen? THAT one?
I had the worst trouble finding a costume for my tall 11 year old! We finally settled on a witch hat & cape combined with some black clothes of her own. We were both very disappointed in the Party City selection.
Dear Portland-area Anonymous,
I've answered you on my blog.
Sincerely, Elizabeth
look maybe I shouldnt have said what I did about your kid. I was disturbed however by a lot of your viewpoints displayed on your blog. maybe I went too far. I am sorry.as far as the overweight thing it was more about the fact that I was sitting there thinking that someone who is so concerned about health and stuff is missing the obvious. it is not like I hate fat people or something. I know someone currently who I care very much about who is very very obese. she admits she has a problem. she didnt admit it before because she too was healthy as the proverbial horse until recently. she has now been told to take it off or prepare to die young. I have dealt with this myself, I was not obese but I was overweight enough it began to affect my health. I too refused to lose weight because "I wanted to be accepted for me". well now its about health so its amazing how easy it is. I want to be alive for my kids and grandkids. my whole family is fat, in fact it killed my dad. some of them have lost it, so it IS possible
Anonymous said...
oh you mean THAT John Lennon??? the one who was the total waste of oxygen? THAT one?
And who's in your record collection?
Anonymous,
I accept your apology and am quite touched by it. And now I understand a little more as to how you feel about the overweight issue. I'm glad you took the time to explain yourself. You are welcome any time to (register with blogger first) come visit my blog and comment on what you don't agree with, and what you do, as long as it's in a respectful manner. I can answer questions. I don't do very well with attacks.
not John Lennon. I never liked him musically and i think he was a hypocrite on multiple fronts. and apparently he was an asshole to his son all the while singing about "love love love". charity begins at home. to be truthful I never liked ANY of the beatles but Lennon least of all.
from one anonymous to another:
Dammit your a prick.
Anonymous,
Why so angry???
I, unlike Laura Linger, believe that children of all ages should be allowed to express their sexuality. Otherwise, we end up repressed and angry just like Laura. Perhaps it is her Catholic upbringing.
Gosh you are an idiot. I am no fan of Laura Linger but if you have not read her previous posts the woman was molested in the catholic church. ya dont think THAT might just give someone a TAD bit of some issues now do you? give the woman a break.
and what do you mean by children "expressing themselves sexually"??? are you a member of NAMBLA or something?
I am not aboutut myself. however I will say I looked up the amazon reviews for the "fat acceptance" books that Elizabeth recommended on her blog. you can tell a lot about a book by the reviews. I stopped reading about a fourth of the way through the reviews for "fat so?" I was thoroughly disgusted that people put their health at risk, ignore medical evidence and drive up my insurance bill because of their refusal to face the fact that they have a serious eating disorder. apparently this is quite a trend that Elizabeth is onto here. as a former vegetarian and someone who was overweight (not obese, but overweight) I can tell you that most of the vegetarians I knew (myself included) made upor eating evil meat by eating cheese and butter and lots of other very very fatty foods. foods that even if you dont think you are gorging, you are taking in a LOT more fat and calories than would be in that very filling boneless skinless chicken breast. just for jollies I checked out Elizabeths veg website. yup. a WHOLE STICK OF BUTTER in something shared among four people. you dont have to stuff yourself to get fat and stay fat on food like this. fat can run in families because we learn our eating and cooking habits from our families a good chunk of the time.
further, I used to be the same religion as Elizabeth. thankfully I got out. there are huge huge stretches of time where you pretty much live on nothing but carbs. it played HAVOC with my metabolism eating nothing but bread and hummus and beans in various permutations for months on end. somehow I dont think this is what God intended.....
Anonymous, I would love to have a well-reasoned discussion with you, find out why you left the Orthodox church (perhaps some of the same reasons I've thought of it....) but you just are not being reasonable. I don't know where you got the idea that my apple-huckleberry pie, which uses a whole stick of butter, was to be split up among just the four of us. My daughter doesn't even eat butter, so that would be only three. But you apparently missed the fact that it was for THE WHOLE CAMP and I had people begging me for some before it was gone. I only had a smidgen, myself. You don't know what you're talking about and I'm done trying to discuss things with you rationally.
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