Audience The audience that I am trying to communicate with is
parents who have children, people who are expecting, and the
younger generation.
PurposeThe purpose of this text-based project is toopen the
minds of the reader and allow them tochange their ideas of gender
specificHalloween costumes. Allowing for individuals towear
whatever they want on this specific dayand not be judged for it in
the long run.
HalloweenOctober 31st is the eve of the WesternChristian feast
of All Hallows.Halloween was originally promoted as achildrens
holiday, and as a means ofreining in the wicked and
destructivebehaviors of teenagersTypical festive Halloween
activities includetrick-or-treating, attending costumeparties,
carving pumpkins, lighting bonfires,apple bobbing, visiting haunted
attractions,playing pranks and dressing up to besomething you are
not for a night.
http://simplisafe.com/files/images/blog/home_security_halloween_safety.jpg
Playing Dress upHalloween costumes are traditionally modeled
after supernaturalfigures. Anywhere from monsters, ghosts,
skeletons and witches.Over time, the selection of costumes have
extended to popularcharacters from fiction, celebrities, and
generic archetypes, such asa pretty princess to a crime fighting
ninja.Early Halloween costumes were aimed at children in
particular, butafter the mid-20th century, Halloween became
increasingcelebrated by adults. Now the costumes are being worn by
adultsas much as children.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/regina-george?before=1319987576Todays
standardsToday, Halloween standards is quoted greatly by Mean
girls. Teenage-Adult aged females take Halloween as an excuse to
dress up as sluttyand to not be judged for doing so.
But what if a male dressed as a Female? It may be funny if you
see a male dressed in a female costume for halloween. Guys will
think it is funny and make fun of big names or big stereo types,
just to get a laugh out of their friends
http://www.wtfcostumes.com/costumes/man-wonder-woman-costume.jpg
The overall question for thispresentation is....
How would you feel if you saw a little boy dressed up in a
female-genderspecific costume for Halloween?
Not a new concept?There may be some of you asking yourself,
whywould anyone let a little boy dress up as in agirl costume for
Halloween?Others will not have any second thought to let aboy dress
up as a girl inspired costume.Now... What would you do if Your own
childwanted to dress as a girl for Halloween?
Generally Little girls dress up as: Princess Witches Cartoon
character from TV Cute bugs (lady bug, bumble bee, ect)
Internet explosion!The internet has been exploding with the
ideaof allowing little boys to dress up in a genderspecific female
costume.If a parent did allow their child to go to aclassroom
dressed up as a girl, how would thechild react? More importantly
how would theparents react?
She made the news!A mothers decision to allow her 5-year-old
sonto dress up as a female cartoon character for apreschool
Halloween party has lit up theblogospher.This blog topic has
received negative reactionand disapproving looks from other parents
andhave received over 3 million page views andover tens of
thousands comments.
5 year old dresses as Daphne forhalloween Right from the start
of the blog, Sarah (the mother of the child) says, My son is gay,
or hes not. I dont care. He is still my son. And he is 5. And I am
his mother. And if you have a problem with anything mentioned
above, I dont want to know you. These are some very aggressive
words on a very touchy topic
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/52914794.html
Boo, her child, decided he wanted to beDaphne from Scooby Doo a
few weeks beforeHalloween. She was hesitant to make thepurchase,
not because it was a genderedsituation, but because 5 year olds
have atendency to change their minds. After herequested a couple
more times, she orderedthe costume. Boo was very excited to wear
hislovely new costume.
On the actual day, Boo was afraid to show offhis new costume.
He was afraid of whatpeople would say and/or do to him.
Sarahreassured him that he would be fine.Boos friends never once
said a hurtful word tohim, they only played and enjoyed
theirHalloween festivities; it was the parents in theroom who made
a big scene....
One mom had the nerve to walk up to Sarah,and let her know her
thoughts on the situation.She felt that Sarah should never have
allowedthis, and thank God it wasnt next year when hewas in
kindergarten since she would have hadto put her foot down and
forbidden it.Sarahs only thoughts were, It is Halloween,people get
to dress up as what you are not. Itsa fun holiday.
Sarahs Blog has currently been taken off of the internet due to
the massive amounts of responses whether it be good or bad. I am
sorry that I can not share the blog with you at this point in time.
If you are still interested in the story, here is Sarahs website:
http://nerdyapple.com/aboutme/
Another story has blownup the internet...
My princess BoyThe Kilodavis family has shared the
sameexperience as Sarah and Boo.The Kilodaviss son Dyson began
wearingsparkly and colorful dresses in preschool andstill does at
age 5.
Dyson Kilodavis says that while it is important to understand
why children cross dress, it is also important that they are happy
and know that they are loved however they dress
Cheryl, Dysons mother, said that one daywhen she picked up
Dyson from preschool hewas dressed in a sparkly dress.She ran
straight to the store and got him Malespecific costumes to play
dress up in to makesure he that he was not confused on how toplay
dress up as a male.But the next day she picked him up frompreschool
wearing a yellow dress, as happy ascan be.
She said, The discussion is, what is going tomake this more
accepted? We have childrenwho are expressing themselves
differently, andwe need to get a place of acceptance
Self Published book So, Kilodavis self published a book on what
her son and her family went through while trying to understand his
clothes.
The books descriptionMy Princess Boy is a nonfiction picture
book about acceptance. Withwords and illustrations even the
youngest of children can understand.My Princess Boy tells the tale
of 4-year-old boy who happily expresseshis authentic self by
happily dressing up in dresses, and enjoyingtraditional girl things
such as jewelry and anything pink or sparkly. Thebook is from a
moms point of view, sharing both good and badobservations and
experiences with friends and family, at school, and inshopping
stores. My Princess Boy opens a dialogue about embracinguniqueness,
and teaches the reader how to accept young boys whomight cross
traditional gender line clothing expectations. The bookends with
the understanding that my Princess Boy is really ourPrincess Boy,
and as a community, we can accept and support youthfor whoever they
are and however they wish to look.
http://www.amazon.com/Princess-story-about-young-loves/dp/0615395945
After-math After doing research on the topic, I wanted to ask
the people closest to me how they truly felt about a little boy
dressing up in a female costume.
What does the populationsay? After taking a survey of what
people who are near and dear to me thought about this topic, I was
shocked. The question I asked was: How would you react if your
little boy told you he wanted to wear a gender specific female
costume for Halloween? Would you be: A) Appalled and try to change
their mind B) Be wary but supportive C) Fully Supportive
ResultsThe results came back with an extremely highvote for A)
Appalled and try to change theirminds.More than few people voted
for B, but the veryfew voted for C.It is just surprising to me that
after getting 26votes only 5 people said they would fullysupport
their own child.
In the endIn the end, it is every parents decision to allowwhat
their child will to wear on Halloween; but Itruly hope that this
has impacted someone inaway to rethink that it IS ok to allow a
child to bea little different.Every child should be able to
expressthemselves in their own ways, if that be onHalloween or on a
daily basis.