Halloween is a busy time of year for gender
Filed by: Guest Blogger
October 26, 2009 4:30 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/10/halloween_is_a_busy_time_of_year_for_gender.phpEditors' Note: Guest blogger Cassandra Keenan is a professional journalist living in Las Vegas who works as a copy editor for print media. She also writes about gender, trans issues, queer sexuality and other LGBTQ topics on her blog.
cassandra.jpgI was recently browsing Halloween costumes online, via Web sites such as
Target.com. If you do the same, you'll notice that the scariest monster you'll come across is the one that holds up a giant mirror and shows us how little social progress we've made as far as relaxing and even abolishing our unwritten gender rules.
Not to my surprise, the vast majority of girls' costumes I browsed consisted of skirts and dresses, or generally outfits that rendered them as objects of beauty and allure: a cheerleader, a princess, Little Red Riding Hood, a "sexy" witch. With boys' costumes, the vast majority were superheroes, sports figures, villains and other fantasy- and reality-based get-ups that revolved around traditionally boyish stuff, infused with themes of aggression, bravery, virility, power and status. A doctor, a gorilla, a ninja, a football player, a monster.
