The Children of the Street Society is warning against the growing trend of young girls dressing in “sexy” Halloween outfits, saying the practice is inappropriate and harmful.
“Sexualizing a child or youth is inappropriate. And Halloween shouldn’t be an excuse to be able to sexualize children or youth further,” said Diane Sowden, executive director of the Children of the Street Society, according to The Province.
The Children of the Street Society advocates against the sexual exploitation of children and youth, and holds education programs towards that end. They have sent out news releases to schools in the Lower Mainland the past six years, asking schools to “encourage socially responsible Halloween costumes.”
Sowden points specifically to costumes that glamorize the sex trade as especially concerning, citing the rise of a “pimp-and-ho” couples costume.
This year, the letter sent out to BC schools reads: “Costumes geared towards children and youth have increasingly become sexualized. Costumes such as ‘sexy teacher’s pet,’ ‘prisoner of love’ and ‘pimp and ho’ create false perceptions of the perpetrators and victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking.”
Dr. Stuart Poyntz, SFU assistant professor in communication, believes that the problem of the sexualization of young girls is far from exclusive to Halloween costumes.
Halloween shouldn’t be an excuse to be able to sexualize children or youth further.”
– Diane Sowden, Children of the Street Society executive director
“The problem of the sexualization of girls, and increasingly younger girls, through tween marketing and through particular celebrities, makes this just another instance of what I would say is an old and ongoing problem,” said Poyntz.
He continued, “It’s just another damn example of how entrenched our culture seems to be in pushing certain kinds of lines around the visibility and vulnerability of young people.”
Poyntz also thinks that the issue is systemic, and symptomatic of a problem that our society has yet to address. “We’re at a time where any explicit talk that suggests girls should not be able to pursue their own ambitions, their own interests, their own concerns, is very easy to identify as sexism.”
According to Poyntz, this tendency has lead to a culture where dressing in an overtly sexual way is seen as female liberation.
“What happens when the kind of empowerment that’s been offered to girls is actually an old message wrapped in new clothing?” asked Poyntz. “In emphasizing girls’ agency and girls’ empowerment, what we fail to recognize is when girls’ empowerment is empowerment in very particular ways and very limited ways.”
