Gender performance on Halloween

The objectification of women stems from a young age of cultural influences. A large cultural influence is being placed on young kids for their halloween costume. The choices that differ between males and females ridiculous. Boys occupational halloween costumes include cops, fireman, doctors, scientists, cowboys, pirates, boxers, construction workers or animals. Girls occupational halloween costumes include nurse, equestrian, ballet dancer or animals. Now boys also have the choice of villains, criminals, or superheros. Girls have the choice of princesses. While you see the difference in amount of choices between the sexes, you should see the actual costumes.

Many parents were outraged by the gender stereotypes in halloween costumes this year. Little girl’s costumes have more skin and less clothing, while the boys have realistic costumes. The girls section does not give the choice of a realistic cop outfit with slacks, they can choose the skirt with the large decorated feminine belt. An article on CNN’s website titled Halloween costume showdown: Superheroes beat princesses this year talks about different children’s and parent’s views on the topic between girls and boys costume. Brown said. "Girls can't run and be active with short skirts and boots", this just shows how a parent views the objectification of his daughter’s costume choice.Because why can’t little girls be superheros too?

Why does toddlers costumes need to be gendered? What does it matter if the pumpkin costume is for a little boy of little girl? This is about gender performance, and gender acquisition. How are the little boys halloween costumes sexualized? They are not. The little boys costumes are very realistic. The girls costumes are always dresses or a skirt, even if the career involves like crime fighting. How is a cop supposed to chase after someone in a skirt? The fact that the only option is for little girls to wear dresses starts the sexuaisation of girls from a young age. An article online on parent tool kit talks about what psychologist Dr. Michele Borba thinks about this topic, “The bottom line is we want to raise happy, healthy, strong kids. If we stereotype in gender, race, age, we really start to pigeon-hole them and it begins to set up bias that there are certain things they can’t be.”

For halloween weekend I went to rutgers to visit a friend on college avenue. The outfits I saw on halloween night were not costumes. Girls walked around with lingerie on with some sort of ears or tail. They also wore knee high socks or sexy stockings. Of course I saw a ridiculous amount of girls in high heels. Each girl was more sexualized than the one before. I almost felt bad for the girls I saw because they were freezing, their feet hurt, some were uncomfortable, yet they felt like they HAD to be dressed like that to receive any form of attention. The sexualization and objectification of the female body needs to stop.

The male costumes are all the same. They throw on a jersey and claim to be some sort of athlete. They do not have any pressures and can practically wear what they want. All I saw all weekend long was men standing there objectifying women and checking out their bodies. The women just let it happen. They had no response when a man “cat called” a girl dressed in a one piece skeleton outfit. The objectification of women stems from childhood and its time it comes to an end.