While it hasn't quite reached that level yet for kid costumes, for adult costumes, that's pretty much true.

I worked the costume counter. One of my co-workers worked make-up on the other side of the store, but he was a hound dog. Whenever an attractive woman came in to my counter, he would leave his station, lean against my counter until the woman acknowledged him, point to the most revealing costume and say, "You would look GREAT in that."

Another time, an attractive woman came in to piece together a hula girl costume. She asked me if she should get the sea shells or the coconuts for the top (we had both). I straight-facedly replied, "Shells. The coconuts would make you look easy." Unfortunately, my sense of humor was too dry, and she didn't know I was joking so she did go with shells.

TlalocW

"really?" a belly dancer. I mean, "where is your belly?" Why aren't you showing your sexiness? Well, because this is historically what we wore. "oh".



Here is example (not me in the picture) and I agree, commercial girls halloween costumes are infuriating.

Im going to have to read that one a few times.

But thanks for the corrected one. I was actually *just* re-reading it!

I find myself wanting to use sexist slurs all the time. I cuss like a sailor. When I slip, I apologize if I've done it in front of anyone else.

It's just something we all have to work on if this stuff is ever to change.

I was in Walmart and looked at the Halloween costumes and just did a big ol'

This is basically their idea of a cat costume for a little girl:



Then there's the more adult version (not at Walmart):



I almost always was a cat for Halloween and cat costumes always came from a pattern like this:



One year, lion. Next year, tiger. Next year, house cat. Just varied up the theme a little, always a cat of some sort.

Drove my mom nuts, she wanted me to be a clown or something, she got so sick of making cat costumes and nothing but cat costumes . Poor mom, but she did it anyway.

And if you go to the big Halloween Adventure stores where they have lots of adult costumes, gads, it truly is "sexy" everything.

Put me down for 'sexy fairy' if you will. I do wonder where you live, that kid's packages say 'sexy' on them. The actual top kid's costume from last year was Smurfs, previous were the Harry Potter characters, this year's likely top costume for girls will be Katniss from the Hunger Games. She's a hunter with a bow and arrow. She is a great hero.
The reason I took the time to point out those facts is that the boy is depicted as being thrilled, utterly pleased and contented with his choices, corpse, killer or mutant. He, this artist insists, gets exactly what he wants. And that is sexist bullshit of the first order. What will go on this year is that boys will be told, as they are every year, that they have to stick always to gender nomative costumes. The girls will be allowed to put on pants and pick up a bow and go be Katniss. That's reality. Or, if you wish, that is also reality. But it is reality.

I'm sorry that I simply shared the comic I saw on facebook, and didn't seek one out which relays the ways that the P hurts little boys, too, so I could post it here with this one in this group. Mea culpa.

kinds of stuff at our house. for years, i would buy something new at the end of the season and husband made some homemade coffins.... lots of fun. the boys will gather the bones and clothe them, making a grave yard. for years, the kids all around come to our house. kids are older and not as much into it, but.... they HAVE to do it cause so many depend on it. we have a fogger, too, that is a blast....

that being said.

for a while i would have all these young girls dress up the worst.... it was sad what they wore. really. the last couple years i have seen a shift. alst year, so much more creative and not dressing the girls in "sexy". not even as many princesses. so, i am actually seeing an awareness over the last couple years that seem to have been effective.

I don't have any "in the field" experience. No children and I vacate my house on Halloween so I have no idea what kids actually wear around here.

Cracked me up

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/sexy-halloween-inspired-menstrual-pads-you-can-act

I do like the idea of reusable pads.

I'm a big proponent of reusable pads / moon cup type things.

Who, unfortunately is conservative on many issues (I blame her military experience; well and the fact that she rejoined the Catholic Church--the church never got a hold on me) is all into 'making a smaller environmental footprint' so not only does she make and reuse diapers, she started making her own menstrual pads as well.

I think it's an excellent idea, it loosens the stranglehold 'feminine hygiene' companies have on women--to the tune of billions of dollars if I recall correctly, it supports small businesses usually woman run, if you don't want to make your own, you can get reusables on the net, it helps with the environment, and it teaches women that menstrual fluid isn't extra special 'gross' --it's nature, no more no less.

I like those pads though, that cracked me up as well

It really is sad how taboo the subject is. There shouldn't be any shame involved.

During the republican embarrassment about women's reproductive systems, someone commented about the idea that it's little wonder that so many people don't seem to understand how women's bodies function when tampons and pads are treated like dirty little secrets and kept hidden from view. I mean we don't have to carry them in belt holsters but they don't need to be treated like illicit drugs and kept hidden at all times.

Doesn't mean I don't find it gross particularly smeared between my legs or any other part of my body. A lot of folks like me are really blood squeamish, and it has nothing to do with "shame" at having your period. Blood is associated with wounds, illness and death, so it's normal to find menses just as disturbing as blood coming out of the body for any other reason. Yeah, it is gross. I've always found it to be gross and want to see and feel as little of it as humanly possible in the same way I feel about other "waste" that comes out of my body... I don't want to look at it, I don't want it smeared on any part of me, I sure as hell don't want to be spending days sitting in it, and I want it gone as soon as possible.

I some women want to joyously embrace their menstrual flow, that's their business... hell, I don't care if you smear it all over yourself and make finger paintings with it. Just don't be telling the rest of us that there's something abnormal about finding menstrual fluid to be just as gross as all the other waste that comes out of our bodies and thank the gods that someone invented tampons so we don't have to actually sit in the glop for days on end, endure the discomfort of having to be straddling a padded canoe in our pants nor have to wash out period rags like diapers every month for a huge chunk of our lives.

There is a particular shame I'm talking about, not the oh shit I wore white today. Or eww, some woman left her bloody pad on the floor of a public restroom. I don't think anybody needs to wave their soaked pads like a flag on the end a stick as a sign of women's solidarity. And I am not woo woo. I don't find anything 'sacred' except perhaps the human condition. Not blood, of any kind,, although it's certainly highly symbolic.

I talking about the shame of bleeding at all you know the 'curse', the idea that menstrual blood is unclean, instead of a cleaning process. That it's a shameful occurrence instead of what to many women is a pain in the ass. The ignorance that led to toxic shock syndrome from tampons--THAT kind of shit.
Being blood squeamish affects lots of people. I get it. I've had people faint from blood draws.

I wouldn't compare it to puke or shit though. It's a far most interesting process. Well shit is as well, but everyone shits and only women bleed.