A few weeks ago, I posted a question on my FB page regarding cultural costumes. It received a fair bit of discussion. Take a look.
Nerdy Apple: Doing some costume research. Are ‘geisha’ costumes not inappropriate? What about ‘senorita’ or ‘Indian princess?’ Am I thinking too hard about these things because I find them off-putting.
Commenter 1: For adults: Go for it. For kids: Hmmm….. I probably wouldn’t, for neither daughter or son. They don’t exactly represent the kind of values I’d like to pass onto my children…
Commenter 2: My daughter wants to be a mariachi ninja. I don’t think they sell those at the Halloween store
Commenter 3: not sure what would be inappropriate about any of those costumes, assuming they were done with an appropriate taste level.
Commenter 4: I’m not a fan of the geisha one, but I’m not sure what’s wrong with the others. Or maybe I’m just not “getting it”?
Nerdy Apple: I don’t know. Maybe I’m feeling they are bordering on racist?
Commenter 5: I say go for it, “dress up” is about being something different than what you are. Weather that be a dream occupation, a different gender, or race. Further more, I think I would find it somewhat flattering if someone wanted to dress up as me. But I don’t think there is a HUGE demand for the white suburban homemaker costume :D
Commenter 3: I see your concern, NAB, but I guess it all depends on context and [again] taste. but if you are worried about it, then I would probably avoid it. perhaps suggest actual characters that are similar from those cultures? an anime character instead of a generic geisha? Frida Kahlo instead of a “senorita”? Sacagawea instead of “indian princess”? then you’d be able to do some cross-cultural education in the process.
Commenter 6: I agree with Commenter 5. Cultural and historical dressup seems OK to me…
Commenter 7: I’m not loving these ideas either. Would it be horrible? No. Would anyone care? Probably not. But I would go with Mulan or Pocahantas before Geisha or Indian Princess. Off putting is the right word - it’s hard to articulate how a woman viewed in a stereotypical way of a certain cultures/ethnicities isn’t quite right or dare I say politically correct.
Commenter 4: I don’t think of it that way at all. And maybe what I think I know about geishas isn’t true, so I may be off base with that one. I just think of them as a way to celebrate a heritage…not really any different than a cowboy costume. Now, if there was a “slave” or a Nazi or terrorist costume…I would probably flip my lid!;)
Commenter 8: I agree Commenter 5 if you do it right. It would be taken as a compliment. Not seen as being disrespectful.
Commenter 9: They are stereotypes of the race being represented. As people of privledge, when we use those for our own amusement (Halloween etc) then we re-affirm racisim in covert and damaging ways. I vote no.
Commenter 9: My mother actually let me leave the house and go trick-or-treating dressed as a Playboy Bunny when I was 13 years old. No joke.
Another year (grade 3 or 4) she painted me in blackface and tied a kerchief around my head and sent me to my school Halloween party dressed as Aunt Jemima… now where does THAT fit in with all of this ‘dressing up as something different is the POINT of dressing up’? I am retroactively mortified…
Commenter 10: They’re definitely bordering on racist, in my opinion. I agreed with Kirk’s idea to dress as an actual person rather than a stereotypical caricature. The costume would likely look similar, but it would be a lot less offensive.
Commenter 11: I love 3′s suggestion. If you’re dressing as a specific person, I *think* you don’t have the issue of reinforcing stereotypes.
Commenter 12: I generally have beef with white people appropriating pieces of other cultures, esp if they’re being trotted out as “cute”. What someone else said. Most of my friends of color would be totally annoyed to see their native dress or stereotypical representations of their culture walking around on random people for Halloween.
Commenter 1: To me, it’s not so much whether they’re racist or not, it’s more how they, especially the geisha, represent a view of women that I absolutely do not want to reinforce. A Geisha costume on a child is to me about as appropriate as the little girl on Toddlers and Tiaras who was dressed up as Vivian from Pretty Woman…
Commenter 12: I agree. I also wish that there weren’t so many provocative costumes for young girls.
Commenter 13: suggestion: research a historical figure. my 8 year old was Owl Woman last year for Halloween and her costume rocked!
October 12 at 11:21am · Like
Commenter 14: Offensive - they’re meant to represent a race not a person.
Commenter 15: What I am reading is making me a little upset. What I think I’m reading from some of you is that pretending to be someone you’re not can be racist? What if you’re pretending to be a Native American in a school play? Is that so different from Halloween?
When my kids dress in costume, it’s never to make fun, but because it’s what they appreciate. Unless, of course, it’s an actual clown. Lol. But it would still be out of some kind of appreciation.
My daughter is part Asian, part Native American and a couple other mixed in, but she looks caucasian. Is someone going to be offended if she were dressed in a traditional costume but didn’t “look” the part? Likewise, my son is part Asian and will be a Ninja, yet again, this year. He is nine and still thinks he can grow up to be one;) He hardly looks Asian. I don’t think it’s offensive. If anything, he respects what that culture has to offer.
I think children want to actually be these characters, people, parts of culture, etc, when they dress up.
To be clear, I would not like to see a cowboy/Native Am combo or plantation owner/slave combo, etc.
Were my child to make fun of another culture or race, not only would I prob MAKE them wear the costume, but we’d also do an entire unit on that culture and another unit on tolerance!
Also, for those that don’t know, there is an entirely respectful side to Geisha.
Lastly, I am offended by very few costumes. Every culture, genre, gender etc can have a silly side. That’s how I see it anyway; not to be taken too seriously, especially when it’s a child, especially when it’s for fun, and most especially on one of my very favorite holidays of the year. Halloween, baby.
Commenter 16: A costume is just a costume. It doesn’t ‘make’ you behave or think any particular way. Witches or zombies included. It its only what you behave like when you are in it. ….if you even do.
October 12 at 2:01pm · Like · 1 person
Commenter 15: Lol, . I just reread Commenter 9′s comment. Unbelievable. Did your mom just totally not know what she was doing? Bless your heart. Now those are costumes that would make me squeamish. Playboy bunny child? Yikes.
Commenter 6: When all is said and done the fact is…you’ll never make everyone happy all of the time
Commenter 16: Halloween is a very good time to recognize the thoughts we project onto people just because of how they look…and not the content of their heart. Thank you, Sam.
Commenter 10: I’m surprised by the amount of people in this thread who think these costumes aren’t offensive. Maybe they’re not explicitly racist…but they are certainly culturally insensitive. Here’s a link that might help explain why: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114199552
Commenter 10: Also: http://www.blogher.com/what-not-wearfor-halloween
http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/RaciallyOffensiveCostumes.htm
Commenter 16: t Thanks for sharng the links, 10. I stanrrd by my position, even though there will always be people who are dressing to intentionally be provocative. The main problem with Halloween costumes is that you can’t discern the intention and you are left to fill in the blank in your head with your own life experiences and personal prejudices. At one time, Halloween costumes were meant to be scary. Now they are meant to be scary, or funny, or cute, or representative, or hey…just participatory. How is one to tell? I still think it is all about intention. And I’m not able to judge people quickly enough or severly enough at a one-time event that is presumably meant to be entertaining, at the very least.
Commenter 10: Well, like I said, they’re not necessarily racist… perhaps ‘ignorant’ would be a better word to use. You can have the best intentions, but if your costume is culturally insensitive and/or misappropriates someone else’s culture in an inappropriate way - it’s still offensive.
One more link: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/
Commenter 10: Sorry to revive this old convo, but just found this and thought I’d share it. (I think it puts the issue in real life perspective.) http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/10/in_the_immortal_words_of.html
Then there was this post that kept me thinking about it.
I had a conversation with some friends about this same subject. One is one of the above commenters. She was all for these costumes being just fine. When I discussing whether or not to take into consideration if others were offended by the costume, she pointed out that many people were offended by Boo’s costume last year. Which is true. Unfortunately, but yes, true. The difference there though is I don’t think Daphne was offended by it. Which might be a technicality, but it makes a difference to me.
Am I overthinking it? I mean, obviously if I am uncomfortable with a costume for a reason that seemed important, I wouldn’t let my kids wear it. I am sure some with find this rich coming from a woman that let her son where a feminine costume, but I do find these cases to be distinct.
Anyway, I think I’m siding on the ‘Senorita,’ ‘Native American,’ ‘Eskimo Princess,’ etc costumes are culturally insensitive.
And don’t get me started on the inappropriateness of 90% of costumes for sale out there. Really, are my daughter’s choices limited to slutty firefighter, skanky kitty, and whorish genie? Thankfully, she just dressed as a nerd this year, to my heart’s delight.
P.S. Why did I go to all the trouble of changing the names to numbers on these comments when they are splashed all over the FB page?
Isn’t your daughter dressing as a nerd perpetuating the stereotype of intelligent people being nerds and looking a certain way, i.e. pocket protectors, etc?
(Just playing devil’s advocate here…)
BTW-
A Geisha is traditionally a professional hostess; she is NOT a prostitute. So I don’t see her as a derogatory costume.
My issue with the geisha costumes is not that being a geisha is a bad thing (you are right in that they were NOT prostitutes)… but rather the costumes themselves are often derogatory.
I think there is a BIG difference between a Native American person being offended by a white woman wearing a “Sexy Indian Princess” costume and a (seemingly) homophobic person being offended by a boy dressed as a fictional, female children’s character.
The former, is a misappropriation of someone else’s culture and identity as a sexed up caricature for laughs. The latter, is a bigoted adult who can’t handle the idea that some children haven’t yet been stifled by our society’s expectations about gender roles and “masculinity”.
To put it bluntly- A so-called Christian offended by a boy dressed as Daphne is offended based on their own prejudices. A Native American offended by a “Poca-Hottie” costume is offended based on someone else’s prejudices.
Let me clear one thing up about my original post; I am referring to the store bought, stereotyped costumes. I find the WASPy versions of other cultures to make me uncomfortable, especially the sexualized versions.
I am not referring to a child in a school play wearing a traditional and culturally accurate costume as being insensitive.
This discussion is what I was after. I love to hear all the sides, especially how this is going, in a respectful manner.
My first point, I agree with Crafty Farmer. As someone of mixed ethnic background. I am a little bit of everything and my family celebrated every aspect of it, but I look like a standard American blond haired, blue eyed, “white girl”. I looked up to the talented women that wore those lavish dresses with folds upon folds of ruffled, brightly colored fabrics. Granted the store costume pictured as a “senorita” is a watered down version of the dress, that style is a traditional dress for both Mexican and Spanish folkloric dancers. But I think that is the problem with most department store costumes. Over generalization.
As some of the blog commenters and Facebook commenters have stated, in situations like these I think it is best to turn it into a history lesson or ask your child their reasoning to clear up any confusion/misnomer and it helps to do it in a tasteful manner. But my view is probably a little different than everyone else’s. For Halloween I have been both Jasmine the “Indian Princess” from Disney’s Aladdin, and a Cherokee girl, but I knew the difference between an “Indian” and a “Native American” at the age of those Halloweens. i have also been a football player, a fairy, and wore a Poodle Skirt.
Some of kids’ most creative and honest moments come when they are “making believe” and “playing dress up”. And being raised to respect everyone’s culture and backgrounds, I find it somewhat offensive to not let a child dress as someone of a specific race or a cultural representative if that child looks up to and admires that figure, especially if the limitation is due to parents being afraid.
As an awkward, white, fashion challenged person I am offended by the nerd costume! ;).
Sorry, but this is ridiculous. I lived my youth internationally and we honored cultures by wearing their “costumes”. My children are different races. Two of them dance in a Ballet Folklorico troupe. Guess what? My white son is a natural Latino dancer. My brown son….not so much. They both wear “costumes” from many Latino cultures for their performances. Is my brown son entitled to wear them even though he botches the dances and my white son not? This is silly. For me, this “fear” of potential racism represents the absolute ignorance of many of my fellow Americans regarding nationality, culture, etc. Puh-leeze!
When I bought my 9 year old daughter’s Flamenco Dancer Costume I didn’t even think twice about it. (Sadly.) She is not allowed to wear costumes to school, but is a bit in love with Dancing with the Stars, so I’m not sure it even occurred to her.
Then I went to my son’s Kindergarten class party yesterday and a little girl came in as an Indian (aka Poccohontos) - even with a feather in her hair. As the kids were going around telling what they were (believe me, it was hard to tell on some), a little girl from India was truly offended and told the other girl off, that she was the “real kind of Indian”. Broke my heart.
I feel like Flamenco Dancer is different from Senorita. It’s an occupation that happens to have a cultural context. Just like a kid going as a firefighter. Rather than saying “I’m going as a stereotypical Hispanic Woman and using the Spanish word so it sounds PC” your daughter actually picked an occupation to emulate. And those dancers are hard workers!
That’s a very good point, thanks. Funny thing is the costume pictured above is practically identical!
I also wanted to say that the little Indian girl in our class, explained where she was from and totally owned it.
http://lissawriting.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/racism-think/
has information about the We’re a culture not a costume movement. I find these costumes to be stereotypical and offensive. A few years ago I got in trouble because I would not allow kids to dress up for reports on different cultures that have influenced Texas. I let kids dress up quiet frequently for other presentations.
A parent complained to the principal that I was being a spoil sport. The principal was an wish washy idiot. (My current principal would have backed me) She told me to let them to make the parent happy. Since the whole point of the report was to increase respect about other cultures I was ticked off. So I changed the rubric. If you chose to dress up it had to be historically accurate. If it wasn’t historically accurate - you couldn’t pass the report.
We were just talking about a related issue in my Team meeting today. We have a unit on Thanksgiving (2nd grade) coming up. I shot down activities that basically had some kids dressing up in TV versions of the Plains Culture. I pointed out that the Native Americans that the Pilgrims interacted with would NOT have been from the Great Plains or any of the cultures of that region.
if it is done with respect I think it is OK.
I’m half Swedish and I don’t get bent out of shape to see “vikings” at Halloween. (Pro-tip, the horned helmet is not period accurate.)
And what about green skinned warty “witches?” is that demeaning to practitioners of Wicca?
there are limits, I think, black-face is never appropriate, for example, due to the historical aspects of it being used to belittle..
i think a lot of people associate the word geisha with prostitution, but i think before you can do that, you have to research the history of being a geisha. you’ll find it’s not true. geisha’s translation is ‘entertainer’ and usually this women were trained in the art of song, music and dance. there are women who have become professional geishas who are not japanese. i don’t necessarily find a native american costume racist or offensive. there is a distinct difference being indian and native american. that’s where my problem lies. whether it’s costumes or whatever else may be the topic, i think people will always find a way to find fault with it. most of the time, it’s a no-win situation.
Thre is a difference between dressing like a geisha (which one of the commenters felt was akin to an anime character?!) and dressing in a way that mocks and denigrates a geisha. It;s possible to wear a “cultural” costume without denigrating the culture. There was a celebrated incident at UCLA years ago, where a fraternity had a South of the Border party where the brothers wore sombreros and threw tortillas at passers-by. The hispanic students felt this was offensive, because it was reductive and mocking. But dressing in a traditional or historical way is not inherently racist or mocking.
OMG - There were many ‘little senoritas’ and ‘indian princesses’ in my neighborhood last night. They weren’t co-opting, denigrating or misappropriating anyones culture - they were Latino and Indian! I can’t believe that not a single poster considered the idea that the costumes in question weren’t marketed at white america, unless of course you happen to live in white america.
Go to an online costume store and look at these costumes and more often than not the models will be white. (Check out the “Indian” section of Yandy.com for instance.)
I realized how stupid my comment was shortly after I posted it :-)
The costumes on the packages were generic, likely because they had to be. Just like they can’t use “Jedi Knight” because it’s licensed.
When I was a child, I had no clue about political correctness - not that it was even a concept at the time. We sang about the Frito Bandito, etc. I can see now why it’s inappropriate. But if he had not been a bandit, would he have been politically incorrect? I hope not. We should celebrate our differences, not pretend they don’t exist.
Not that it would have necessarily have been done by all parents, but these kinds of costumes can open up opportunities for educating kids about different cultures and about history.
That was really food for thought. I learned a lot reading everyones options. I love it when I can gain new insight into something like this.
I thought this was an interesting discussion, but I wanted to add in a point that I don’t think has been voiced much. Every generic costume is a generalization. The nurses, the doctors, the firefighters, the athletes, the soldiers, the musicians, the princesses, etc. And yes the nerds. :)
They are a generalized portrayal of what someone thinks signifies that persona in dress or behavior. Some are more positive, but they are all generalizations.
Along with that point, even specific fake characters are generalizations. There are many people who would hate if thier kid wanted to be a Disney Princess, because they feel that disney characters (and especially the more traditional princesses) glorify women standing back and letting the man rescue her. A stereotype of the traditionally femnine woman.
We generalize and categorize and stereotype by nature. Yes there are social/interpersonal/cultural/polotical/etc. meanings and implications imbedded in those categorizations. But we can’t get rid of them. We can’t function without them. You don’t test the seat of a chair everytime you sit down, trying to figure out if it will hold you, because our stereotypes of chairs tell us those are going to hold us up. We have to be able to quickly tell whether the person walking down the street towards us are friends or strangers, friendly or a threat. We don’t have to like that it happens, but there is no way around it on a day to day basis.
With that said, if there are stereotypes that carry more negative histories and meanings. And it is important to be aware of that. But everything is going to upset someone. But simply saying that because a costume is based on a generalization of a job or a race or a type of person is too blanket a statement. Any generalization has the potential to offend, and most costumes and characters are based on generalizations.
Might there be a kid on the playground who is called a nerd, and then is embarrased when one of thier classmates dresses up as a stereotype of who they are supposed to be?
Might a soldier dislike that a kid dresses up like him or her, and runs around shooting things all night. Especially if that person sees thier job as someone who helps create peace?
What about political figures or celebrities. Is it appropriate to make costumes that are parodies of those actual people? Costumes that play on thier idiosyncrasies and failings?
What about the costume of the stereotypical French guy? Is that offensive because it is a generalization or characterization of a nationality?
Is a male dressing as a female by wearing a dress offensive because the idea that dresses are a signifier or stereotype of femininity?
I saw a person dressed as missionary from the LDS church. Would a member of that church view that as offensive?
Maybe ask them why they want to dress like an Indian girl. Maybe it’s because they think saris are pretty. Maybe that boy wants to dress up like a ninja because they are strong and fast. Maybe they want to dress up like a native american princess because they like the braids and the beading. And maybe it’s good for those kids to get to experience feeling beautiful or strong in a way that is part of a different culture. And maybe they want to dress like Daphne because she is their favorite character. In the end, all people can do is to try to do things with good intentions, parents can take teachable moments to talk about the differences between stereotypes and individuals, and we can let kids play dress up on halloween.
Well put.