Halloween is in a couple of days and after shopping online at Party City for some costumes, I realized how sexist they were. Yes, Halloween costumes from Party City are sexist. Compare the boy costumes to the same girl version of the costumes at Party City and you will see the difference.
To start off, there is a defined boy section for occupations on the Party City website, while for girls there is not even an occupation section, but a “classic” costume section. A majority of girl occupation costumes are listed in the “classic” costume section, but are portrayed unrealistically while for boys occupation costumes, the costumes look as if real workers would wear them. For example, the Classic Police Officer Costume in Party City is described as “realistic” in the description but the Girl Cop Costume is described as a “cute cop costume” and “sassy and sweet.”
Not only are the costumes incorrectly described, but they are also made incorrectly. Some costumes have girls wearing dresses or skirts when they should be wearing pants. Every single nurse costume is either in a skirt or a dress when searched up in Party City.
I understand that the unrealistic career costumes are supposed to be seen as “make believe,” but they give girls the idea that they can’t have a real occupation as a cop, or as a construction worker if they wanted to. The costumes need to be unisex or at least not pushing girls to conforming into society’s gender norms.
Parents have begun to voice their concerns for the unfair costumes. A mother named Lin Kramer with a three year old daughter wrote a letter and posted it onto to Party City’s Facebook page listing all their faults, mentioning the points I stated above and more. Kramer specifically mentions that not only are there 53 “classic costumes” (or career costumes) for boys but only 42 for girls. Her letter was then deleted off of Party City’s Facebook page and was later blocked from viewing the page.
To conclude, Party City should change their costume catalog into more unisex costumes. Their sexist costumes are pressuring girls into gender roles and influencing them to believe that they cannot have real occupations. If parents are beginning to go against Party City’s costumes, there is something definitely wrong with their costumes.