Halloween and Gender Perfomance

To start my post I will show this image seen on several of the articles on Halloween.

People are saying that Party City should be reprimanded and remove this product.  While others are saying that they are simply promoting what sells.  Sadly, the second is true.  This image (and other Halloween costumes that I have seen this past weekend) are culprit to the content and stereotyped culture of the media.  On Friday night, I volunteered at an elementary school's 'Spooktacular'.  All of the young students that attended were dressed up- and very few altered from the gender boxed costumes for today's youth.  The boys were monsters, police, fire fighters, race car drivers, etc.  While the girls were princesses, cats, unicorns, fairies, etc.  I believe that sadly many parents do not see the issue with suggesting certain costumes to their children over other.  Because of parents influence (at least at an early age) on their children I am amazed that some care-takers allow their children to dress as they do.  Not only because of their gender boxed costumes, but because of either the violence of their son's bloody, weapon in hand, monster costume or their daughter's revealing tu-tu.  While reviewing my experience on Friday and the articles the following caught my attention.  

Lin Kramer: “Is this boy superman?

Daughter: “No, he’s pretending.”

Lin Kramer: “Exactly, he’s just pretending. So if he tells you that you can’t be superman, tell him that you can be because you are just pretending too.”

When I was little gender boxes must have existed, however, I do not know if it is that I just did not notice or if I was lucky enough to grow up with out it dictating my life.  When I was little my mom always made homemade costumes for my brother and I.  Halloween was always my favorite holiday because I was able to be ANYTHING I wanted to be.  I NEVER was a princess, despite being a girl.  I simply knew that I did not want to be a princess.  I was more excited by being a giant felt bag of Twizzlers candy because I could not be a bag of candy any other time of the year.  It deeply bothers me that youth is forced to conform to gender boxes at such a young age.  This issue grows from gender boxes to cultural appropriation, as ages increase.  College students (and high schoolers) are the worst with cultural appropriation and Halloween.  Many people insult religions, races, genders, cultures, and more through the way they dress act and dictate a group of people.  Whether one person from a specific group or even 10 from a group think the costume is okay- that small group does NOT speak for the whole.  People lose site of the greater picture and the greater effects that ones action of a costume could have to someone or a culture's image.  It is rude and unnecessary.  People are beginning to notice the issue with gender boxing and the same should be seen with cultural appropriation.  Both of these issues spread deeper than  Halloween, however, fixing the media's perspective for this day could lead to chain reaction of aiding the future.