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Group Protests Slutty Child Halloween Costume Trend
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 29, 2010
Modified Oct 29, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 29, 2010
Modified Oct 29, 2010
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It's that time of year again, when parents mysteriously let their little girls dress up like slutty whatevers for Halloween. But this year a group of concerned moms are trying to "Intervene on Halloween" to show kids "there are lots of other ways you can dress on Halloween." Last week they held a workshop at Hunter College called the SPARK Summit—which stands for Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge.
One of the event’s organizers, Deborah Tolman, tells the Post, "Halloween is the only time of year that people and the media talk about this problem [the sexualization of young girls]. But enough angst already. Let’s do something about it." At the summit, a costume designer came to help girls make costumes that weren't provocative, but with so many adult woman going for the sexy-whatever look on Halloween, there are a lot of bad influences out there. How many Lady Gaga at Yankee Stadium costumes will we see this weekend? (Or Sexy Double Rainbow Guy, for that matter?)
"I think we’re in big trouble,” Diane E. Levin, a professor and co-author of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, tells the Post. "Halloween costumes for 7- and 8-year-old girls and even younger have become downright titillating, and for tweens and teens, the vast majority of those sold in stores and on the Internet are unabashedly sexually alluring." There are a lot of them sold online, and it's a safe bet that many of the people Googling for these costumes aren't potential customers.
Tagged
children
halloween costumes
kids
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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