Last week, a woman who had an issue with girls' and boys' Halloween costumes in regards to a lack of "career costumes" for girls, wrote a letter on Party City's Facebook page voicing her opinion which was allegedly deleted and she was banned from the page.
Lin Kramer, who was shopping for a costume for her 3-year-old daughter, noticed there were more costumes under the career costumes tab in the boys section like police officer, pilot, navy admiral, doctor, and NASCAR driver among others, while for girls, there were significantly fewer costumes consisting of pop star, cop, and boxer.
Kramer wrote, "30 percent of the costumes you market to boys are based on occupations, while just under seven percent of the costumes you market to girls are based on occupations."
For the most part, girls costumes tend to be sexualized and have less fabric. It seems like the trend for costumes is boys can be something cool, scary, or realistic and occupation based, but girls' costumes are mostly made to make girls just look pretty.
Kramer noted that most costumes for girls are unrealistic. We wouldn't expect a female cop to wear a skirt or a dress on the job, for example, but a boy's costume is very similar to what an actual police officer wears. She says, "When describing the girl costume, your marketing team elected to use language like 'cute cop' and 'sassy and sweet,' while for the boy costume, they chose to note the 'realistic scaled-down police shirt' and assert that 'this protector of the peace has it all under control!'"
Based upon this complaint as disturbing as it is, even for Halloween, society is telling our daughters that they're supposed to look pretty and not much else, while boys have more potential. Many costumes are cute skirts or dresses and princess costumes, but not all girls want to wear that. Some girls want to be scary, sporty, or something outside of the typically "feminine" spectrum, and that's OK. Unfortunately, those costumes aren't typically marketed toward girls, especially not in the same way they are toward boys.
While she had an issue with these costumes, her main concern was how the costumes were marketed, and that these realistic costumes found in the boy's section weren't also found in the girl's section. After Target did away with most of the gender-specific signs and advertising, I thought we were moving forward, but instead we're taking two steps back. The Disney site has labeled all of their costumes simply for kids, so maybe Party City will take the hint and change their marketing techniques as well.
Party City commented on Kramer's letter thanking her and saying they would consider her feedback. However, Kramer said both were deleted from the page. Others have supported Kramer by sharing her story and some have reposted her letter to the Party City Facebook page.
This is an important conversation to have and hopefully Party City and more businesses will reassess their marketing techniques and think about what they are portraying to people.
