I'm ready to offer a big "amen" to most of the sentiments in this article.
When we went shopping for costumes, it was super easy to find something for J, who walked into the first aisle, had his eye caught almost instantly, pointed and said "BUUUUUUUZZZZZ!!!!" We promptly pulled down the costume and he hugged it to his chest until the checkout line.
B was more of a struggle. We wandered around the aisles again and again....she had talked for a long time about being Dash from the Incredibles (an idea I totally loved). But she didn't like the fake muscles the costume had, so we had to find something else. Most of the Disney princess-type dresses she didn't go for (though she REALLY liked the Cinderella one)....but I'd have said no anyway, because the skirts were of the barely-cover-your-butt type with a little bouncy petticoat underneath that would have guaranteed some flashing of Dora panties. The more generic costumes (witch, devil, fairy) had all sorts of glaring flaws - hooker boots, lace-up bodices, skin-tight neon-colored leotards as the base - I could go on and on.
Finally we decided to buy a frilly little knee-length skirt with a matching pair of very large blue wings so that she can be "Tinker Bell's friend that wears blue, because Tinker Bell is not very modest!" That's right, I couldn't convince her to be a modified, modest Tinker Bell even though I tried (The exchange was something like ME: "We can get the green skirt and wings, and we can put your hair up in a bun! With your leotard under the skirt you'd have sleeves and still be modest." BEE: "I don't want to be her! She's not modest and not nice!" ME: "Fair enough!"). I was pretty proud of her.
I'm glad that she wasn't drawn to the short-and-sexy ones. But I hate that they're around, and I'm sure it's a discussion that we'll have at some point.
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4 comments:
this makes me think of this: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-19/opinion/granderson.children.dress_1_elementary-school-girls-push-up-bra-plastic-surgeon?_s=PM:OPINION
way to stand up for modesty. I think Tinkerbell's friend is wayyy better than Tinkerbell, anway.
in case you're wondering, the blue fair is Silvermist. The problem seems a bit different in Utah. Most of the little girl's costumes are long enough, but they have short flimsy see through little sleeves that are immodest and also completely impractical for this time of year. So I made the girl's costumes, and designed them for modesty AND winter warmth.
As for mom and dad costumes, pretty much nothing was modest, unless I wanted to go as a whoopee cushion. ugh.
I just make my own costumes; not with a sewing machine (usually), but I'd rather just get practical stuff together than buy from a store. Like last year my oldest wanted to be Daphne from Scooby-Doo. So rather than the skimpy costume at the store, I bought her a purple shirt and skirt, a green scarf, and pink tights. The bonus was that she could use all the costume parts for regular clothes during the rest of the year. This year she wanted to be a 'blue water fairy' so she has a blue skirt and shirt, and all I had to buy were wings!
I don't know anyone who actually buys those costumes from the store, so I really wonder why they keep selling them. Besides the modesty issues, in most places they are not warm enough for the weather this time of year.
Good for her! When I was a kid we NEVER bought costumes (probably a result of our often dire financial situation). We used what we had around the house, like a white sheet with eyes cut out of it (ghost), or a bunch of strips of fabric (probably from that same sheet) so that my brother could be a mummy. That particular costume fell apart shortly after we started Trick or Treating, despite all the safety pins. :P
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