Reminder to avoid offensive Halloween costumes

[Anonymous]

I think it's weird when adults get so into dressing up for Halloween. I get why kids like dressing up for Halloween. It's a fantasy for them and a way to try on different personas and lives. It's just a more formalized excused to play make believe which is something kids do all the time. Also candy.

As an adult I don't get what the goal is. It's not actually make believe. When people wear costumes they are not actually pretending to be these people. It's more like the goal is to prove to other adults how clever you are or how much time or money you have to devote to putting together a really good costume. It seems pointless to me. I've been to many adult Halloween parties and the costumes are basically just something you discuss for a minute and then it winds up being like any other gathering of adults. You're still just standing around drinking beer and discussing work and kids and travel. It's just that your neighbor is wearing a banana costume and when her husband comes to tell her that the sitter called and they need to go he has to take off his Kruger hand in order to get his phone out of his pocket.

I don't know. It feels like the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pocahontas dressed as an English woman after she married. Was she racist?

Was that her choice?

You really aren't as clever as you think you are.
You should leave this stuff to people who are better at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird when adults get so into dressing up for Halloween. I get why kids like dressing up for Halloween. It's a fantasy for them and a way to try on different personas and lives. It's just a more formalized excused to play make believe which is something kids do all the time. Also candy.

As an adult I don't get what the goal is. It's not actually make believe. When people wear costumes they are not actually pretending to be these people. It's more like the goal is to prove to other adults how clever you are or how much time or money you have to devote to putting together a really good costume. It seems pointless to me. I've been to many adult Halloween parties and the costumes are basically just something you discuss for a minute and then it winds up being like any other gathering of adults. You're still just standing around drinking beer and discussing work and kids and travel. It's just that your neighbor is wearing a banana costume and when her husband comes to tell her that the sitter called and they need to go he has to take off his Kruger hand in order to get his phone out of his pocket.

I don't know. It feels like the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

My take on your opinion is I think you sound like a fuddy duddy and boring person. And then you went there with this expression and then I *KNEW* you were a fuddy duddy and boring person. With a really peculiar thought process in which you assign malice and bad intent to other people's actions randomly.

Enjoy being dull and conventional. The rest of us will be over here, having fun and enjoying life.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hello, Halloween costume troll! How was your year?

I am not a troll. This is a serious issue.

You think trolls don't post about serious issues just to rile people up? Can we have a little perspective about what constitutes a serious issue? My three year old dressing up like her hero Pocahontas...it's not that. The VA state legislature trying to police history and what our kids learn? That. That's serious. When you make everything serious nothing is serious.

Years ago I posted asking if my daughter could dress up as Pocahontas and was annihilated on here.

I’m ordinarily pretty lax about this stuff but the Pocahontas stuff sort of creeps me out because she’s an actual person that has been totally co-opted in a way that is kind of weird and uncomfortable for me. I wouldn’t judge you for letting your kid dress as Pocahontas, but I think i noxed it for my own kid because it just makes me thiink of a young girl who was kidnapped as a teen, married an older man under circumstances that probably weren’t totally voluntary, and died of some awful disease when she was only 20, far fell her home and family. And everyone treats her as a happy cartoon. It’s just icky to me. It’s my least favorite disney movie.

This is a different concern. Dressing as Pocahontas is not racist. You are uncomfortable with it because her story is sad, and I think some tribal leaders have expressed that the white mythology around her is so insensitive that dressing like her is hard to do respectfully. But it's different from putting on a wig with feathers and saying you're an Indian.

It's Halloween. You don't have to be "respectful."

Or, just say it's not Pochahontas and you're dressing like an injun squaw.

Yeah, just be openly racist — Halloween is like those free passes the kids get to say racist stuff

I really don’t care if you take offense. You can go strew in the corner and get your heart rate up. I will be out having fun.

Just to be clear I am not objecting to you dressing an indian, but if you ring my doorbell and say “”I’m an injun squaw” I’m going to tell you to get the hell off my property.

And then I will egg your house.

Are you seeing how this works?

Yes I get that you are an a-hole and a racist— not really surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pocahontas dressed as an English woman after she married. Was she racist?

Was that her choice?

You really aren't as clever as you think you are.
You should leave this stuff to people who are better at it.

Unless you are an Indian, you don't even get to have an opinion about it, much less express it, much less dress someone else down.

Take a seat. Adults are talking.

[Anonymous]

Seems like Slutty Hamas and a Pager are the winners for 2024. Gotta love Halloween

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that doesn't leave anything fun. Not even the sexy corn cob would make the cut.

There's nothwrong with dressing up as a corn cob.

Look, going as President Taft is fine and going as "a fat person" is not. Going as Moana is fine, going as "a Polynesian" is not. This isn't hard.

Has anyone ever dressed as a Polynesian? Isn't it always Moana, which some people find offensive.

I actually agree with your sentiment, OP, but no one has ever been convinced by an anonymous internet scolding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that doesn't leave anything fun. Not even the sexy corn cob would make the cut.

There's nothwrong with dressing up as a corn cob.

Look, going as President Taft is fine and going as "a fat person" is not. Going as Moana is fine, going as "a Polynesian" is not. This isn't hard.

Has anyone ever dressed as a Polynesian? Isn't it always Moana, which some people find offensive.

I actually agree with your sentiment, OP, but no one has ever been convinced by an anonymous internet scolding.

DP. I agreed with OP's sentiment for several years (probably more like 5-10 years). But I'm tired of being offended and inoffensive. We all lost our sense of humor, after a certain incident. And it kept going, where more and more things were set aside or abandoned because they were offensive or problematic. But who exactly was being offended by it?

After the pandemic, a lot of people are tired. We're too tired to get agitated about kids dressing up as other people, whether a real (or fake) character or as a generic someone else. That seems like such a 2018 concern. We're too tired to get agitated about clever, or not-so-clever, adult costumes. It's time to pick up some of the old discarded traditions, especially some of the fun traditions. And rediscover fun, without worrying about being offended or offending.

[Anonymous]

I am going to be a sexy, old, pregnant nun in a wheelchair, wearing a Native American head dress.

Did I miss anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, a general rule is do not put on costumes that feature clothing, body modifications, or hair that are common to another ethnicity but not your own.

Example: non-Black people should not wear afros, non-Indian people should not wear bindis

Nobody except for Mexicans can wear sombreros! Or celebrate 5 de Mayo.

What if I wear a sombrero and carry a weed wacker or leaf blower?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fall can be such a fun season, but it is important to remember: we are all in this together.

As you select costumes for yourself and your child, please avoid costumes which are culturally insensitive, as well as costumes that are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, sizeist, or ageist.

As you select treats for other kids, please be mindful of the effects of sugar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's weird when adults get so into dressing up for Halloween. I get why kids like dressing up for Halloween. It's a fantasy for them and a way to try on different personas and lives. It's just a more formalized excused to play make believe which is something kids do all the time. Also candy.

As an adult I don't get what the goal is. It's not actually make believe. When people wear costumes they are not actually pretending to be these people. It's more like the goal is to prove to other adults how clever you are or how much time or money you have to devote to putting together a really good costume. It seems pointless to me. I've been to many adult Halloween parties and the costumes are basically just something you discuss for a minute and then it winds up being like any other gathering of adults. You're still just standing around drinking beer and discussing work and kids and travel. It's just that your neighbor is wearing a banana costume and when her husband comes to tell her that the sitter called and they need to go he has to take off his Kruger hand in order to get his phone out of his pocket.

I don't know. It feels like the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

My take on your opinion is I think you sound like a fuddy duddy and boring person. And then you went there with this expression and then I *KNEW* you were a fuddy duddy and boring person. With a really peculiar thought process in which you assign malice and bad intent to other people's actions randomly.

Enjoy being dull and conventional. The rest of us will be over here, having fun and enjoying life.

People who use the phrase "fuddy duddy" should throw stones.

[Anonymous]

^shouldn't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that doesn't leave anything fun. Not even the sexy corn cob would make the cut.

There's nothwrong with dressing up as a corn cob.

Look, going as President Taft is fine and going as "a fat person" is not. Going as Moana is fine, going as "a Polynesian" is not. This isn't hard.

Are you just making this stuff up? Who put you in charge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like Slutty Hamas and a Pager are the winners for 2024. Gotta love Halloween

Kamala & Willie Brown should be popular couples’ outfits this year. I guess only half-Indian /half-black girls can don the oversized pantsuit as Kamala.