I think conflating the descriptions with the costumes is clouding the issue.

Likewise, pretty much ANY 'sexy ___' costume is going to be offensive, whether it's of an animal, an otherwise respectable profession or an inanimate object.

I think there's some detail missing here in your argument... and I'm trying to work out exactly how to phrase it.

Because a sexy viking costume doesn't make people worry that that is *actually* how people think of Swedes. Or that all Scotsmen carry giant swords and wear kilts, or that Germans wear sexy lederhosen every day. Or that people in New York will happily ignore the troubles faced by Texas ranchers because they dress up as a sexy Cowboy and turn their history into a cartoon.

The closest I can come up with is that we end up focusing on the visible forms of an imbalanced power relationship. The "offensive" costumes are only offensive because of the real injustices - they remind us of the power relationship. Because just being a caricature of your culture isn't enough to make something offensive or problematic by itself.

But does that make the forms still matter on their own? If the oppression is removed, is the symbol still so powerful?

This is the problem I run into in discussions of offensive costumes and appropriation... they are argued as though the act is shameful and offensive from first principles, absent any power relationship. And yet, the only examples that seem to actually draw offense are those surrounding such a power problem... I think the logical gap ends up hurting the argument, even if your conclusions are right.

In this case, the "Indian" costume is no more representative of current people than a cowboy costume, or a ninja, or a viking, or a cow, or a pilgrim, or a priest, or a fireman. It represents a mythological cultural idea... the real sticking point is why someone is more likely to believe that this myth is directly related to the people whose ancestors inspired it than any of the others.

@Costume Enthusiast In regards to 'intent' http://genderbitch.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/intent-its-fucking-magic/

@Yrro I think absent the historical injustices, and imbalance of power relationships (a very big stretch), these costumes and the like are repulsive due to their ability to cause harm going forward.  These costumes and the like perpetuate the marginalization of already marginalized peoples. While a 'sexy native' costume may seem harmless, the (higher than average) rape and sexual assault rates in native communities and the fact that 90% of the attacks are carried out by non-natives points to actual harm. Both find their origins in the majority culture. 
 
Also looking for a direct ‘harm’ or a cause and effect goes beyond the basics.  In my opinion, there is a basic level of respect which seems to go out the window in these conversations (not saying that is the case with you).  But if someone I respect asks me to do something, which causes me no harm, even if I don’t fully understand it, I do so out of respect for the individual. I don’t ask them to justify their request. I don’t ask them to make an iron clad case demonstrating how they have been objectively and directly harmed by my actions.  I don’t ask for a statistically relevant correlation between my actions and harmful societal trends. It comes from a place of privilege to be able to tell someone else they have to ‘prove’ the harm that is being caused.
 
“Because a sexy viking costume doesn't make people worry that that is *actually* how people think of Swedes. Or that all Scotsmen carry giant swords and wear kilts, or that Germans wear sexy lederhosen every day.”
 
From a prior thread:
“Being French and living in America, it's really disrespecting to me to have my country constantly being portrayed as being wimps and always surrendering at the first sign of trouble. Without my country's help, America would not be a country! But I take it in stride because I know, it's a point of humour and no one thinks any less of me as a person because my family comes from France.”
 
This is not a luxury that everyone has.

A warning to those seeking racism in the minutia...the argument quickly deteriorates losing credibility and giving those in the wings of radicalism on both sides of the argument fodder for the promotion of their goals.  

(Before anyone yells racist, I am from a long maternal line of Blackfeet women but care very little for all the misplaced fervor about college football teams and children's costumes when there is a call for focus on real and pressing matters.)

I would also suggest working towards understanding your own prejudices as it would help strengthen your appeal to a far broader audience.  As it stands the argument seems churlish, generalized and fallacious.  Broad brushes make enemies of friends and detractors of champions.  Brushes filled with a vulgar hatred towards a vast group of heterogeneous people whom you homogenize for the benefit of your argument as being the opposite of your or "not of color" is a perfect emulation of what you claim to be fighting against.  

Basically, you took a teaching moment, a moment of reflection and questioning, discernment of motives and reclamation of symbol and created a place of unattributed shame, a displacement of the very real sins of the father on the non complicit son...If this is the case and all of human history is to be about a continual indebtedness to those harmed by unnamed ancestors, well then even you would be made to stand in the face of judgement to pay ancestral balances.  That is irresponsible and harmful to any cause of action promoting the end to maladaptive behaviors such as regard for or promotion of skin color and ethnicity as delineating factors in social systems.  

I found it particularly telling the only "race" shown in the posting would be of the Native American sort...no French can can dancers or Italian mob wives or sexy British pirates or oversexed Irish bar wenches, obese women with dogs stuck to their backsides or sexy Latina salsa dancers or African princesses or geisha girls or Arabian princes...Not one other stereotype befitting the ire of the blogger.  Now that would make for a good study....

Argh. You can't divorce the historical context from this and pretend it's just like any other sexy (sexist) costumes; the entire subtext for those descriptions is basically raperapemurderrapegenociderape:

Hey cowboy – get a look at this Indian! Stop him in his tracks in this
sexy Indian Dream Catcher adult costume and all your dreams will come
true.

"Remember how white dudes spent a lot of time raping native women? Wasn't that a blast? It's extra funny because of the overwhelming amounts of sexual violence that the descendents of the survivors face today, much of it from white men! Did we say dreams? We meant PTSD. LOL."

Hunt for prey like food and beer or pretty women in this comfortable costume. Get what you want then lay back and enjoy – pass the peace pipe!

"We're not saying that Indian men are lazy drunks! ...Okay, that's totally what we're saying! Fuck those guys! Poverty and unemployment and addiction are hilarious and also probably innate qualities of those people, so really it's for the best that we don't give them much in the way of services and never honored our treaties with them."

The work is done and it’s time to play cowboys and Indians, only this
time the Indian picks off the cowboys that she wants. Put the wow in pow
wow and practice some native American rituals in this sexy Pocahottie
costume. Is that an ear of corn in your pocket or are you just glad to
see me?

"Ha, get it? It's reversed! Cowboys used to murder Indians -- and we're talking like, seriously, white people basically wiped out the vast majority of the entire population with a sustained campaign of genocide and land-grabbing. Funny! Like this bad pun! Is that corn? Why yes, the settlers were substantially helped by the native people they murdered, and Pocohauntas was like 13 years old, but let's be honest that's kind of a boner-killer so how 'bout you just get drunk and bang this white adult dressed like a dead teenage rape victim! We all know that being brown and having a vagina is basically like consent, right? This will reflect the modern day perception of WOC as easy and unrapeable, and help justify the blatant lack of prosecution of sexual assaults they face. Hawt."

I was wondering whether it is always problematic to dress up (not necessarily for Halloween) as a person from a different class, ethnic background, nationality, or time period. Is it still problematic if the person wants to give an honest portrayal, empathize with people from that background and educate others?  

The new clothing lines coming out are bad too, with their Native theme of feathers and beads.

I found the discussing interesting because I found the post very short on argumentation. While I am inclined to be sympathetic to the argument being made, I am not really sure I could articulate a good rationale for why these costumes are problematic to a third party, and this post did nothing to help. With all due respect to the poster, "read these - isn't that awful?!?" isn't an argument, and (contrary to the stated intention in your opening paragraph) it doesn't help explain your point to those who dont already agree with you.

I am very intrigued by Yrro's questions.

"Except for I thought that most Native Americans had kind of rejected the generic label/categorization of "Indian"..."

 I reject the term Nigger, but I don't need to go into the can of worms it would open were I to hear one of my coworkers refer to me as such. The fact that majority culture can define a population in this case the Native via a term they explicitly reject is again a part of the problem. Should a Lakota who is offended by such costumes assume that "Indian" is referring to other Native Americans? 

"When I lived in Canada and experienced that many people (from different countries) associated Germans and Germany with Lederhosen, Dirndl and Oktoberfest (and of course Nazis) I was a bit annoyed (not that much about the Nazi Part, I can understand that) because I don't feel that this is related to my cultural experience in Germany at all. " 
The problem with costumes and other cultural paraphernalia like this in the US is that they can influence the cultural experience of the target/object group.  I am trying not to turn this into a conversation about the African experience in America. But I can see how stereotypes and preconceived/pre-packaged concepts of who I am based on race play into my life directly and also on a systemic basis. I am a VP at a bank, MBA, and a black man.  Which of these characteristics do you think most contributed to an officer calling a K-9 unit to sniff my car 2 months ago when I was pulled over? I have no criminal record but have had my car searched more than a half dozen times, I have had police officers pull their gun on me during pullovers. I know two people, college students with clean records at the time, who were shot to death by police while unarmed. In terms drawing a direct link between misconceptions of criminality and the effects it has on the ground look no further than NYC's stop and frisk.  Look at the racial profiling in traffic stops almost anywhere.   @google-0701efaaf6f3d137dd427f9ef68f6beb:disqus In terns of meeting your burden of proof. Sorry, but frankly that is not something I am interested in doing. There are literally reams of data available regarding systemic racism in the US, particularly around Blacks and Latinos. I can statistics you to death, but in the unlikely case I do convince you, what do I get for my efforts? I've played this game before with folks IRL, and found the pay off to never be worth the effort. 

Pocahottie is a Photoshop Fail. There's idealizing the female form, and then there's turning it into laffy taffy because you got overzealous with the liquify tool.

From the conversations that have been floating around the internet during Halloween, I'm inclined to think that the people who can't tell the difference between dressing up as a stereotyped Native American and dressing up as a stereotyped German are people who have no idea about the plight that the NA population still faces today. 

this makes me weep. or, at least, WANT to weep [i'm cried out for the week...]

like the stereotyping the rest of the year isn't enough?

My favorite part of that logic, circling back to the original post, is it makes it appropriation for Latino-Americans to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos *themselves*!

Amazing write-up! This could aid plenty of people find out more about this particular issue. Are you keen to integrate video clips coupled with these? It would absolutely help out. Your conclusion was spot on and thanks to you; I probably won’t have to describe everything to my pals. I can simply direct them here!

Thanks for actually attaching the links to the pictures so I can buy the costumes you hate!