Many stores still stocking suggestive Halloween costumes for kids
Posted October 27, 2014 8:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – After some backlash, Value Village has have pulled some of it’s “sexy” Halloween costumes, but there are still a lot of store shelves stocked with short-skirted, tight-fitting outfits for girls as young as pre-school age.
“I find it kind of horrifying. There’s becoming less and less choice for costumes for girls that aren’t sexy or short, tight and all that kind of thing,” says Annemarie Tempelman-Kluit, a parenting author and the founder of Yoyomama.
“Can they buy the boy’s firefighter costume or do they have to buy the sexy girl’s firefighter costume? It’s a very big divide, and it wasn’t like that when I was little,” she tells News1130. “Sure, there was always the sexy black cat and then the floppy, casual black cat, but it seems to be becoming more prevalent.”
But given the choice, Tempelman-Kluit — a mother of two — says little kids often will not pick the sexier costumes themselves.
“There’s nobody as self-righteous as an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old,” she laughs. “They have very clear ideas of what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate. It’s very black-and-white when you’re eight.”
But if you do feel like you need to steer kids the right way, a good way to do it is to talk about the practicality of the costumes.
“It’s October and you don’t really want to be wearing the tiniest costume ever when you’re out trick-or-treating. Will you be warm in this? We kind of make it more about whether it’s a sensible costume — not in a boring way, but will this costume work for trick or treating? We stay away from the whole sexy side when it comes to conversations with them,” says Tempelman-Kluit.
Last week, thrift store chain Value Village pulled some costumes off its shelves in Canada and the US after complaints.
