Halloween is a highly exciting time of year for children and young teens. When asking kids what Halloween means to them, responses of pumpkin carving, staying up late, and scary monsters are all mentioned. Of course, though, the real reason why kids look forward to this time of year (like a Mento anticipating it’s escape from a Diet Pepsi liter) is undeniably, the candy. Fun size chocolates, colorful lollipops, plastic fangs, gummies galore, and the always debatable, candy corn, are handed out left and right to kids that are eager to get home to count their hard-earned treasures. In order to receive these glorious sugary treats (that the parents will try to find hiding places to keep out of reach for the next two months), children are usually dressed up in a costume that represents the child’s interest, role model, or a current trend.
Flimsy, plastic bags overstuffed with poorly sewed together clothing and cheap accessories, hang along the isles of Target for Halloween. Kids run back and forth with excitement of the possibilities of who they will turn into magically for this one night of the year. The “Girls” isle is scattered with outfits displaying pastel shades of pinks, purples, and blues plastered with dangling sequins and unappealing glitter that would not come off for weeks. Princesses and fairies are just a few of the costumes displayed. The “Boys” isle displays no less of a false image either. Superheroes equipped with fake muscles stuffed of foam and plastic guns, painted in the image of what masculinity should be in the eyes of society.
The ideal of what a young girl and boy should dress up as is to falsely satisfy the quintessential image of what society has defined as feminine or masculine. This displays gender roles and can mentally and emotionally hurt a child who expresses interest in wearing a costume that is portrayed by the opposite gender. These grocery aisles of Halloween costumes are the true Halloween nightmare; shaping children into flawed and distorted imagery of what girls and boys should act, look, and be.
2 comments:
From: Katie
In the Two Cultures of Childhood, it says, “According to gender schema theory, children learn gender schemas from their social environments, but they also willingly adopt and exaggerate distinctions between the sexes. Gender schemas become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate “masculine” or “feminine” ways” (Rudman 59-60). This picture is a good example of what the article is saying because little kids can obviously spot the difference between a “girl” and “boy” costume in stores. You can easily spot what is the girl and boy section in all parts of stores that have to do with little kids. The girl’s sections are a lot more colorful, pink, and sparkly. While the boy’s section is bluer and duller in color.
Also, in this picture it shows the different kinds of characters that little boys and girls can dress as for Halloween. You can see that most of the characters in this picture of girls are almost all princesses and Disney characters. As for the boys, all the characters are superheroes. Every costume that I see in this photo is a character from Disney or owned by Disney. This shows how much of an impact Disney has on children’s media. Also, all the costumes are based on gender roles. The boys dress up as the tough, dominant, powerful, and strong guy. While the girls dress up as the princess that is portrayed as a girl that is not as powerful and usually is in need of help.
From: Juliana
This brought back memories to my childhood. I wanted to desperately be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but my mom said I could only be a Disney princess because I was a girl. The separation of the costumes in the isles is a good visual representation of how society separates children into their gender identities from a very young age. Boys are usually scary and masculine characters, while girls are usually pretty and dainty characters. Boys will dress like monsters, and girls will dress like brides. Boys will dress like Jedi’s, and girls will dress like princesses. The essay brings up a good point about how children are excited about the same exact things. So then, why must they be separated into different ways of dressing up? You can be anyone you want on Halloween, why do we encourage kids to stick to their gender roles? Children are so creative they should express themselves freely, even after Halloween ends.
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