holidays

Earlier, in our comments thread to this post, junequest observed:

I also find it disturbing that many of the “sexy” costumes are highly sexualized versions of characters who are supposed to be little girls–Alice (in Wonderland), Dorothy, Goldilocks, Red Riding Hood, and other popular or fairy tale characters.

The fact that many women dress up as sexy little girls points to both the sexualization of female children and the infantilization of adult women.

Jillian York linked to an example from her flickr page, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz:

Goldilocks from Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

Alice from Alice in Wonderland:

Little Red Riding Hood:

The phenomenon isn’t restircted to the fairy tale.  There is always the classic sexy school girl:

And its zeitgeist version (also from Jillian’s flickr):

And the related Girl Scout, eh em, Cookie Girl:

Just to see, I did a search and I found these sexy “baby” and “girl” costumes:

Actually, I’m not sure if the baby doll is a “sexy” costume, or if I’m so overwhelmed by women + Halloween = sexy that I can’t see anything else.

For more material showing the conflation of women and little girls, see these creepy posts: the cover girl mouth, innocence is sexier than you think, and compete with your daughter’s little girl look.

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Several stores, including Target, Walgreens, and Amazon.com, offered an “Illegal Alien” costume for sale.  The costume, which includes a orange (prison?) jumpsuit, a green card, and a space alien mask, conflates undocumented immigrants with aliens from outer space.

After a round of criticism, Target pulled its “Illegal Alien” costume from its shelves.

Hat tip to Lotería Chicana, via Resist Racism.

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Because there is nothing funnier than a person, disadvantaged by the perfect storm of race, class, gender, and body-size being forced to give lap dances to feed herself (source):

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Well, it’s October, and that means Halloween is coming. It also means we can expect to see the unending variety of typically racist Halloween costumes that pop up every year. You too can be Oriental, just for one night. Here a few ridiculous ones, with a hair-centric theme…

The above costume item was recently spotted at a Party City. Want to be a “China Man” this Halloween? Apparently, all it takes is a crappy-looking moustache. It’s easy. Just affix this nasty piece of hair on your upper lip, and there you go, instant China Man! Adding some fu to your manchu. (Thanks, Brandon.)

But hey, why stop there? There are other fun and easy ways to be Chinese. Just try on the Chinese Man wig, “an ancient style with bald front and long pigtail in the back.” But even at the low sale price of $41.48, the Chinese Man wig might just be a little outside your budget. That’s okay, because the Bargain Chinese Man wig is also available for just $22.05. Because nobody should miss out on the racist mockery.

Speaking of bargains, how about this kickass Oriental Guy wig? The attention to detail is just tremendous. I swear, every Oriental Guy I know wears his hair just like this! That’s amazing. Wearing this crappy piece of mess on your head, you will be the coolest Oriental Guy at the office Halloween party.

Finally, my favorite one. The Old Chinese Man wig! I have no idea what exactly makes this monstrosity “Chinese.” But it apparently comes in white, gray, brown and black. And according to the website, this wig also works for “eccentric recluse” and “prospector.” Yes, I’m scratching my head too. But the fun doesn’t end there. There are just so many ways to get your Oriental Mystique on! It’s going to be another great Halloween. That’s racist!

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Angry Asian Man blogs at Angry Asian Man.  And he’s not as angry as you might think.

If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our Guidelines for Guest Bloggers.

Another doozy in the sexualization of young girls: “Girl’s Fishnet Tights.”

Borrowed from Lotería Chicana’sflickr set.

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

As far as I can figure it, Halloween costumes come in three categories: scary, funny, or fantastical.  This is why dressing up like another “race” or “culture” for Halloween is racist.  A “Mexican Man,” for example (see below), should not be presented as scary, funny, or fantastical.

Brooke, at Whebr’s Hotub’s Blog, expresses her frustration for people who dress us like an “Indian”:

Why is it socially acceptable to dress like the stereotypical Indian: “Brave”,”Chief”, “Princess”, “Squaw”, “Maiden”? Pardon Moi, but when did the Native American enter the realm of Wizards, Fairies, Super-heroes, Goblins, or Ghouls? When did it become ok to reduce the diversity, language, and culture of nearly 500 different Indigenous tribes into a tacky “costume” of cheap suede, colored feathers, plastic beads, and fringe? Who decided that the history, identity, and lineage of Native Americans could be easily put on and taken off like greasy Halloween face paint?

Brooke features a whole host of “Indian” costumes at her site, including this one:

Illustrating the way in which these costumes tend to collapse culturally distinct groups into a cheap stereotype, Costume Craze has a whole section of the website devoted to “History and World Culture Costumes.”

Here’s a sample of the “Asian costumes” (don’t miss the fantastic font):

“Indian costumes”:

“Mexican costumes”:

Fatemeh Fakhraie, at Racialicious, points out how “Middle Eastern” costumes reinforce both ignorance and negative stereotypes.  Regarding the “Sheik of Persia Arabian Costume” costume shown below, she says:

History lesson: Persia didn’t have sheikhs, they had shahs. And Persia and Arabia were two different places! AKH!

…of course he has a knife! All Middle Eastern men are dangerous, didn’t you know? You can even tell by his face: he’s pissed, and he’s going to take it out on some infidels!

For good measure, Cindy at Lotería Chicana has collected a set of racist Halloween costumes that she photographed at a store called Spirit in San Francisco.  A selection:

UPDATE!  Awesome tidbit from Rosemary in the comments thread:

The geisha one in particular makes me wince, partly because the “kimono” is tied the wrong way (the only time you ever tie it that way is when a person is dead)…

Of course, that’s actually perfect for Halloween!  But somehow I don’t think that’s what SPIRIT is going for.

More…

And my favorite, the “Dream Catcher”:

Does making fun of white people (“tighty whiteys”) make it all equal?

The thing that amazes me most about these costumes is that they’re everywhere.  You can’t escape them.  And no one seems to notice or care.  For example, this “Hey Amigo” costume can be purchased at the Linens N Things website:

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

These two Halloween costumes in a mall display, snapped by Deeky (here and here, via Shakesville), make a joke of women working in masculine occupations by suggesting that they’re, essentially, sex workers.

Captain Layover:

Free Rides:

See our other Halloween-related posts: two extra-special costumes (the Anna Rexia costume and the Sexy Scholar), Max Weber jack o’lantern (by yours truly), Obama mask sold as terrorist mask, a Sarah Palin effigy, handling sex offenders on trick-o’-treat day, and costume catalog analyses (here and here).

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Jeffrey T. found this page on Amazon suggesting gifts for different people in your life. He thought it nicely illustrated not only “…gender roles in our society, but also of age roles and, perhaps, class roles as well.”

Here’s the page (below are close up screenshots and quick, snarky comments):

What is a woman’s lifecycle like?

Girlfriends and wives are apparently obsessed with fashion.  They want nothing else:

By the time you’re a mom, your interest in fashion is accompanied by escapism and the need for a freakin’ break (jewelry would be nice though):

Grandmas love flowers and they fill their days doing crafts, scrapbooking, and listening to showtunes:

Is it different for men?

After work, husbands/boyfriends take off their dress shirt so they can rock out and play games:

Dads are still into “action and adventure,” but they need a break too and, also, they suddenly feel a pressing need to know more about waging war:

By the time you’re a Grandpa, you just want to find a nice room away from Grandma’s show tunes to listen to classic music, watch documentaries (about war?), and read Time magazine with a safe, clean shave:

People who “have everything” (I think that means rich people), just need totally random unnecessary stuff (except for cocktail accessories, those are obviously a necessity):

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.