I’ve started looking for Halloween costumes for my 5 year old daughter already, because last year we ended up with a piece of crap I had to sew back together twice (and my husband had to do once).  Every year, I notice how many costumes being sold to little girls are really, well, slutty.  What is the deal with this?  I assume it’s the same phenomena as the loathsome Bratz dolls.  What is with the sexualization of little girls?  It’s revolting.  Now, what really bothers me is this:  it’s a capitaltist system (that itself doesn’t, I’m no commie LOL hang on..) meaning, retailers usually respond to what sells from year to year.  This means to me that a large number of Americans think it’s “cute” or at least acceptable to dress their little girls like prostitutes on the one day of the year they are supposed to imagine themselves as someone else.

I was looking specifically for a cat costume when I came across this one.  The little girl in the photo, who couldn’t be more than 10 (note this costume’s smallest size comes in 4/6) is posing provocativley with hand on hip and slightly tilted sunglasses. Gross. Many little girls’ costumes feature tight corsets or bodices, very short skirts and/or cropped tops for “Diva” outfits.  Oh yeah, and this one–a can can dancer–look how cute, my little girl is dressed for a burlesque show!  Or oh shit, just saw this one–a Geisha!  You can encourage your daughter to go into the sex industry, how adorable.

Looking over a costume catalog, you see little boy costumes: Astronaut, firefighter, superheroes.  Little girls get: slutty divas, princesses, sex workers (the aformentioned geisha etc..), slutty vampires, slutty devils, and slutty fairies.  In all fairness, some of the witch costumes are cute and not sexualized.

Look, I’m not a prude.  I’m all for women getting slutty on Halloween if they so wish.  What I’m NOT for is the sexualization of little girls who are too young to understand the connotations of their costumes.