In b4 "Fat people deserve it," disguised as "We shouldn't be promoting obesity."

Has anyone been at a party with someone dressed like that? Do you think they'd find it easy to score then or ever after?

Some men use drag to "mock" femininity. Others use it to mock masculinity. Can you instantly discern the spirit and intentions just by looking at the costume?

What would make these particular costumes appealing? I'd say, the fact that they embody multiple taboos simultaneously. It's taboo for men to look or act "feminine" in public. It's taboo for fat people to bare flesh or appear sexually explicit.

Once you're past the trick-or-treating age, what is the Halloween party tradition really about if not flouting and lampooning cultural taboos? The pretext of comic relief gives more people than you might imagine a day of respite from the societal norms that they spend the rest of the year conforming to. And images like these, though understandably offensive to some, can also help reveal how pointless and needlessly restrictive so many of our taboos really are.

For one thing, the first thing you discover every Halloween is that at least half of all your straight male friends desperately long to dress as women, and the more of a show they make of their masculinity every other day, the happier they become in dresses.

This reminds me, I've never seen a thin woman dressed up as a fat man, "sexy" costume or not.

I don't think I'm going to get it together, but my earlier plan was to dress up as a "sexy nurse," and I mean one of the stereotypical female ones with the low neckline and short skirt. The hope was to poke fun at the "sexy _____" variations for primarily women's costumes and the idea that tight clothing or exposing skin was enough to turn a regular outfit for someone with a different job into a costume. (Of course "nurse" costumes aren't much like the scrubs most nurses wear these days.)

For the record I'm male and have enough of a beard to make this a fairly conspicuous critique. Of course, others could read it as making fun of women who dressed "sexy" (maybe a fair reading, but not intended). But why not use the medium of halloween costumes to critique them?

Having read Lisa's article that she linked to i have to wonder if perhaps it would be a good idea to acknowledge that her view is one interpretation. I think that the "fat" costumes are disturbing in making fun of large framed individuals and continuing societal criticism of them. However, the idea of men dressing up as women being completely sexist I am not sure I buy completely. I wonder this because many men are stuck in the gender binary and Halloween is one time in which they are allowed societally to "mess with" their gender. Labeling all men who do this as negative really looks the same as making fun of "fat" You are making an unproven judgment about an entire group and doing so based upon your experiences and socially constructed narratives (stereotyping). is it possible that your interpretation is incorrect?

Whenever I see these costumes advertised, they're typically models by men who are themselves on the heavier side (obviously they are exceptions, like the third example, and IDK what's up with the angel and devil). I don't know what this means, whether it be 'even fat men mock fat women,' or 'fat men would not be able to convincingly dress as thin women,' or even 'fat men have more of an interest in fat women' (I'd wager it's combination of all 3). But just worthy of note.

Anyone else notice that two of the costumes are specifically referencing Hawaiians? Racism-sexism twofer!

This is nothing new. Tyler Perry and whoever starred in "Big Momma's House" have been doing this for years.

I dressed up as a woman for Halloween just to experience what is was like to get really "dressed up" (i.e., full dress, breasts, bra, underwear, make-up, wig, etc). Gotta say, not a fan of all that clutter.

the idea of men dressing up as women being completely sexist I am not sure I buy completely.

I was just thinking that I kind of like the last two costumes in this post. I would totally love to see a man at a halloween party dressed up as ‘sexy nemo’.

I think these outfits highlight cultural horror of transgressing the gender binary or being female in inappropriate ways

Frankly this article is ridiculous. Anyone who does any sort of fancy dress or any actor in a play could be accused of mocking a character, this is all done in fun, it's not judgement on fat people, they have not said hey Tanya your fat! (For example) they are being a very unconvincing fat women for a bit of a laugh. The world gets too PC these days, what about drag queens? Do you think they mock ? Or just having fun? I think the later.

Okay - is it a coincidence that this is being posted right after the Madeleine Albright/Conan O'Brien twitter joust over cross-gender halloween costumes? http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/24/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/madeleine-albright-conan-obrien-twitter-war/index.html

While I applaud the criticism of this sexist/racist form of "costuming" I have to object to a comment by the author:
"We laugh when we see men dressed up as women because how ridiculous, right? "
This raises a question regarding transgendered women. Do you laugh at them when they first begin to dress in public? Do you laugh at mannish looking women ? Why is it ridiculous ?
Is it ridiculous when Georges Sands dresses in male attire?
When a strong lesbian woman wears short hair , leather jacket and rides a motocycle?
Lets not fall into the trap of being so smug we are also guilty of the same flaws in reverse.

The one with the champagne bottle is the character Bubbles from Little Britain, I'm pretty sure

Yes because fat women need worship being superior beings cannot be mocked ok sounds good so who is safe to be mocked? Freedom of expression put through the femminist socialist filters equals no freedom

Of course, one of the reasons men dress as fat women is that most men can't dress up as thin women.

Im generally really touchy about anything sexist and people, but this is ridiculous.
What is a person supposed to wear, not to insult someone? I was thinking as going as a rock, but the costume is quite wide and people will think Im insulting fat people.

Im generally really touchy about anything sexist, but this is ridiculous.
What is a person supposed to wear, not to insult someone? I was thinking as going as a rock, but the costume is quite wide and people will think Im insulting fat people.

Only thing more unappealing than a whale are the captains chasing her

Thank You Very Much, very enlightening.

I thought this smug, self-righteous and obnoxious article was satire until the end. There was nothing enlightening about this pontificating, absurd drool. The only point this article intends to make is how much better Lisa Wade thinks she is than you.