Halloween Costumes and the Gender Line

This image from online retailer Halloweenexpress.com is pretty typical in how it presents the categories of costumes: Men: Creepy, Women: Sexy, Boys: Aggressive, Girls: Girly

Have you noticed the aisles of "boy" costumes separate from the "girl" costumes? 

In our culture that sees gender as binary, it's challenging to find a Halloween costume idea that transcends the boundaries of gender.

Last week, Fandango surveyed 1,000 people who were going to dress up for Halloween, and among the top 20 costumes - divided, of course, by top ten for men and top ten for women -  only ONE Halloween get-up bent gender at all:  For women, the fifth most popular classic character costume was The Mad Hatter.

There was a good discussion thread over at genderfork about Gender Neutral costumes, which brought up the frustration of how to be gender-neutral without being an object - like an undersea fiberoptic cable, or a bunch of grapes.

Some suggestions were fascinating, and androgynous:

An Angel

Dr. Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two

Genderbending burlesque Zombie

A Lord Of The Rings Elf

and, of course,

a Zombie Apocalypse Rescue Team member.

What about YOUR costume? How gender-conforming, or non-conforming is it?

Let me know in comments - and if you send me a picture (as long as it's appropriate) I'll share it here!

Happy Halloween!

Lee

Gender 101, Episode Eight: Gender Queer Advice & Resources

This week's discussion includes Benji's advice to other gender non-conforming people and a sampling of Gender Queer resources.




Here are direct links to the resources Benji mentions in the video:


genderfork.com

genderqueerrevolution.org

safe2pee.org


And I love Benji's message to other gender non-conforming people:

"You're not alone."

Thank you, Benji!

Namaste,
Lee