Halloween and Gender Performance

Halloween is a unique holiday in American culture. Gender and culture appropriation are threaded into this holiday in a plethora of ways. It is vital that we recognize how corporations are not only selling costumes. Hypersexulized images are brought to the minds of young females in these costumes. Costumes for young males portray a desired image such as a superhero. Halloween is a time to have fun and to dress up, however, females and males are extremely limited in what they can and cannot dress up as for Halloween.

The article, “Girls Halloween Costumes Promoting Gender Bias,” states that “costumes for young girls are becoming more sexualized, raising concern for experts and parents alike.” These sexualized images are seen because of the poses of young girls as well as the short dresses/ skirts they wear in Halloween ads. Another article, “Halloween costume showdown: Superheroes beat princesses this year” correlates to this statement because it describes how females are focused on looks when it comes to costumes, while young males are focused on their powers. The article, “The Corporate Masquerade: Branding Masculinity through Halloween Costumes” also aligns with this statement. An “analysis of 100 images of men's Halloween costumes, demonstrates the considerable power commercial culture has today in constructing and limiting ideas of American masculinity through licensed/branded costumes.” This shows how males need to associate their identity with being powerful, a hero, or very masculine. Our culture has constructed the identity of males and females and on Halloween. The images associated with the identity of males and females are evident in the costumes. According to a study, only 8.7% of costumes were gender neutral. This is unfair because both genders have to confine to a costume on Halloween, and again, are limited with what they can and cannot wear. 

This is a problem because, as the article mentions, “Girls can't run and be active with short skirts and boots." A company’s main focus should be for children to run around and have fun on Halloween, not to expose the bodies of young females. In addition to this, they should not limit young boys on what to wear. Both parents and boys “strictly define what boys should wear,” as mentioned in the “Girls Halloween Costumes Promoting Gender Bias” article. Even if a girl desired to be a superhero, her costume is sexualized because these costumes include tight clothing or skirts. Another article, “Mom takes Party City task over ‘sexualized’ costumes for little girls,” shows an image of a young girl in a sexualized cop uniform. This is grossly inappropriate for a young girl to wear. Companies like party city need to start making costumes for young girls that include pants over dresses and skirts. It is unfair for females to be limited for what they wear on Halloween. In my own life, I have observed how the majority of my past costumes have either been dresses or skirts. At the age of 10, I wanted to be like my Dad and was a firefighter. I was aware that he did not wear a dress to work; however, my costume was a dress. Why must companies do this to young girls? Young females are just as active as young boys, and all young children, regardless of their gender, are adventurous. A costume’s main focus should be focused on the adventure that young children crave, not the look or image that confines gender roles.