Saturday, October 8, 2011
Are superheroines not sexy enough for Halloween?
With the arrival of fall break, some people are already planning for the next big holiday - Halloween. Halloween's the time when we can dress up as anyone we want and we'll look as normal as a superhero in Comic Con. So I went to www.partycity.com and I couldn't help but notice the lack of superheroine costumes compared to superhero costumes. There were about 52 superhero costumes as opposed to 20 or so superheroines. Are women less prone to buying superheroine costumes, or costumes in general? It's not for lack of sexy superheroines either. After all, Halloween is notorious for being the time of the year when women can wear slutty outfits and not get criticized (as much as other days at least). So Party City... where are Black Canary, Black Cat, Jean Grey, Dazzler, and Sheena? I am quite surprised that a Halloween store like Party City would have such a skewed ratio, especially with all the potential for new and sexy costumes. I would think that superheroines would be the easiest selection to have, especially since there is so much variety and sex appeal with these costumes. Maybe women don't like dressing up like superheroines? Or maybe women don't buy as many superheroine costumes due to the lack of variety. Maybe Party City's CEO should sit in one of our classes and get ideas of which superheroines to add for next year's costume line. It just seems really ironic that we have been talking about oversexualized superheroines and not even half of them are listed under "Sexy Costumes."
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ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you think superheroine costumes are under-represented. I've seen Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Lara Croft, and even X-Women costumes. The worst part about them is that they're sometimes even more skimpy in real life than in comics. They also have a lot of female counterparts to male superheroes as well. The reason why the ratio of men to women superhero/heroine costumes is so imbalanced is because the vast majority of popular superheroes are male. But I don't really agree that the Halloween market doesn't work the slutty superheroine angle.
ReplyDeleteAdult Female Superhero Costumes:
http://www.buysuperherocostumes.com/female_superhero_costumes.html
Superheroine halloween costumes are definitely more oversexualized than the costumes in comic books. I doubt that when women are shopping for costumes they are thinking about the powers and intelligence of the superheroes they are representing. They are only concerned with how hot and slutty they can look.
ReplyDeleteIt could be that there just aren't as many super heroines than there are superheroes out there. And I agree with Michele, I'd say that the people who purchase super heroine costumes from Party City are probably not concerned with the details of who they are portraying. If a true fan were to depict a super heroine for halloween, I would bet that they would try to create or find a more accurate costume.
ReplyDeleteI think with superheroines it comes down to popularity. Every year, I see countless Wonder Women, Cat Women, Bat Women (clad in skimpy spandex and all). However, honestly, I didn't know many of the super heroines you mentioned in your post before taking this class. That doesn't mean that other girls don't know of them, but I would venture to say many fewer know of say, Black Canary, than Wonder Woman. A wonder Woman costume will probably bring in more income for a franchise like Party City.
ReplyDeleteThere probably are more male heroes in general in the history of comics, books, movies etc. That's probably why there are more male costumes than female. The options are narrower with female heroines.
ReplyDeleteAlso, with children costumes in particular, I feel as though little boys are more prone to want to dress up as batman or as another superhero, where as little girls would most probably look to barbie or a disney princess before they look to dress as a superheroine. Obviously that's a gross generalization that doesn't apply to everyone, but I essentially think that costumes are solely a matter of the popular fad at the time.
ReplyDeleteI think that girls are more likely to dress up as male superheroes than female superheroes. Male superheroes are, whether we like it or not, more popular. I've seen my friends dress up as batman or superman. They just alter the costume or make their own costume so that it is more feminine and call themselves "superwoman"or "batwoman". But what they really mean is that they are female, dressing up as batman.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alexon said. I think we are more likely to see a girl dress up as something like a princess rather than a superheroine. Most of them probably don'tn even know about Superheroines since comic books are generally read by the boys.
ReplyDeleteMost girls are more likely to dress up as princesses or a Catholic schoolgirl because there isn't much variety for super heroine costumes and because they are not as exposed to the comic book industry.
ReplyDeleteSuperheroes costumes are a brilliant idea for Halloween parties.Mostly people like superheroes costume because those are easy to wear and comfortable.
ReplyDelete