Several years ago I answered the door one Halloween night, and one of the accompanying adults was a wife/mom about my age, or maybe a year or two younger, from down our street. She was wearing a good Wonder Woman costume. And it fit her very well.
I don’t remember managing to get anything witty out. I think it was just mostly a look of admiration and exchanged smiles. I can visualize a wink from one or the other of us easily, but I’ve probably added that in the years since just because it would have been so cool. Door closed. Elapsed time: 10 seconds.
Now I think this sort of flirtation is not only harmless, but actually one of the things that genuinely enhance our quality of life. I liked her. She liked that I liked her. I liked that she liked that I liked her. What a marvelous little charge for she and I to enjoy, both at the moment and then for a little while after. Lea actually came home from trick-or-treating with the boys and wanted to make sure I’d seen her. Heh.
(And, oh, there’s this: we were both, you know, 40, with attendant maturity levels and sensibilities.)
A sexy Wonder Woman costume intended and sized for an adult woman is one thing. But folks, things have gotten way out of hand for much younger ladies. I started casually reading this piece half-expecting it to be a possibly overreacting mom of an older adolescent girl. Then I discovered that the mother was upset about a she-devil costume with a super-short skirt, red fishnet stockings, and knee-high boots—that her eight-year-old wanted.
I am sad and furious that there is a (clearly thriving) market for slutty Halloween costumes for prepubescent girls. This mom is even facing “all my friends are doing it” backlash from her daughter, which here’s hoping she’ll endure in the service of larger principles, but sheesh.
Do we really have significant numbers of parents now who genuinely don’t realize that there shouldn’t be any such thing as an eight-year-old “sexy nurse”?
There is a good discussion at the above link about how to healthily address what a sexy costume means and doesn’t mean, with good transition into why and how we seek approval and what it means to honor yourself. I’m pleased to see this good message in the Huffington Post, just as I’m appalled that it’s necessary.
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