By Juliana Britto Schwartz • @JulianaBrittoS • 10 years ago

The Wednesday Weigh-In: Feminist Halloween Costumes Edition

A black and white cartoon portrays a little girl at a costume store faced with only "sexy nurse," "sexy secretary," and "sexy fairy" costumes. Next to her, a boy reaches for the "doctor" costume, right next to the "firefighter" outfit.

Happy October! Halloween is approaching quickly and for some, ’tis the season for racist, culturally appropriative costumes, or to make everyday objects into “sexy” costumes. But this year, let’s start early and generate some great feminist costume ideas!

An African-American woman wears a Marie Laveau costume. She poses in a long black dress, a scarf around her head and a shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

Image Credit

Having a hard time thinking of a few famous women throughout the ages? That’s probably because we never learn about them in school. To get inspired, check out Rejected Princesses, a blog about “women too awesome, awful, or offbeat for kids’ movies.”

My favorite posts recently have been about Osh-Tisch, a Native American two spirit woman and warrior, Petra Herrerra, a Mexican woman who disguised herself as a man to fight in the Mexican Revolution, and Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian-British-American spy who served as the only radio operator in occupied Paris during World War II.

From there, move on to Take Back Halloween, a blog created by the Real History Project where you’ll find all sorts of low-cost DIY costume ideas for women that go well beyond “sexy [insert ANYTHING AT ALL].” Some of my favorite costume ideas: La Sirène, the goddess of the sea in Haitian Voudou, Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Marie Laveau, one of the most legendary and mysterious Voodoo priestesses ever, and Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to earn a pilot’s license.

And before you hit the streets on the 31th, be sure to review this advice on how not to be a racist piece of shit on Halloween to help guide friends and neighbors in their outfit choices. And remember, there’s nothing wrong with being “sexy” for Halloween. In fact, we loved Kristen Schaal’s sexy Halloween costume last year.

A gif titled "I call this one the sexy vagina" shows Schaal and Stewart sitting at a table, a woman dressed as a giant, pink, vagina standing behind them.

Image Credit

Who are you going to be for Halloween this year? Katniss? Olivia Pope? Leave your ideas in the comments.

Juliana is trying to come up with a costume better than her traditional Frida Kahlo look. She can’t think of one.

Juliana Britto Schwartz

Bay Area, California

Juliana is a digital storyteller for social change. As a writer at Feministing since 2013, her work has focused on women's movements throughout the Americas for environmental justice, immigrant rights, and reproductive justice. In addition to her writing, Juliana is a Senior Campaigner at Change.org, where she works to close the gap between the powerful and everyone else by supporting people from across the country to launch, escalate and win their campaigns for justice.

Juliana is a Latina feminist writer and campaigner based in the Bay Area.

We need your help!

Feministing is a labor of love and all our staff have other full-time jobs to support their work on the site. Your donation is much appreciated, and much needed.

Donate Now

Join the Conversation

By Nia Evans • 6 years ago

Dear Betsy DeVos: Fighting for Survivors of Sexual Violence Is a Racial Justice Fight

For the past few months, I’ve seen several articles — almost exclusively written by white women — arguing that we shouldn’t enforce Title IX protections for survivors of sexual assault because the authors believe Black men are more likely to be accused. The narrative has been picked up by numerous media outlets and used by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to strip protections for survivors.

The idea that survivors’ rights are a threat to Black men leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Let me be clear: that’s not because I’m not worried about race discrimination in school discipline. We have no data to support the argument that Black men are more likely to be accused of or ...