A Dad Discovers the Horrifying Truth About the Costume Gender Inequality Divide for Girls

Does your daughter want to go as a pilot, fireman or policeman, something of which to aspire? Tough. They’re all for boys. Unless she is a sex kitten. One dad loses a gasket over the gender divide that is Halloween Costumes.

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Halloween can be a harrowing time for kids. And I’m using the word harrowing in the sense of it being difficult and confusing. Maybe that’s what harrowing always means. I’m not sure, but it’s a big word and it seems to fit and taking it out after writing this much about it might prove to be a harrowing adventure for me.

The word also sound a lot like Halloween, which, if you made it through that first sentence, you’ll realize can be confusing for kids. Because costuming, especially for a young girl (my assumption and opinion, not necessarily fact, although please do proceed), can be tricky. My question, specifically, is what is the problem with girl Halloween costumes?

For example, let’s say one of my daughters comes up to me the day before Halloween wanting to be a firefighter so they say to me, “can you find a firefighter costume for girls?” Duh, I’m your dad, of course I can do that. So I do as adults do and use the internet to tell me how to do this. Google, find me ‘firefighter costumes for girls.’

“Of course, I’m Google. Here you go, your results for ‘firefighter costumes for girls.’ Which one would you like to purchase…”

Wait, sorry Google, I asked for costumes for girls. These look like women and these don’t look too much like the outfits worn by any woman firefighter I’ve seen. What gives? Would you give me the same results if I asked for costumes for boys?

“Thanks for asking, here you go…”

Well, that one man does look a little under dressed. But not bad. Does this happen with pretty much every costume?

Now, reader, you may be thinking “dad, you’re an idiot, just search for firefighter costumes for kids. Why even bother looking for costumes for girls or for boys if you’re fighting so hard for some kind of gender neutrality?

Google, find me ‘firefighter costume for kids.’

“Here they are…”

That’s fricking why. Because if you want to find pictures of girls wearing costumes deemed traditionally masculine, you still need to add ‘for girls.’ Because we’re all horrible. So, back to Google. Are all costumes this horrible?

“Here’s pilot costumes for girls…”

Uh huh. So there are six people wearing full pilot outfits using that search and 10 wearing short skirts. Am I seeing the breakdown correct? 6 boys and men on one side and 10 women on the other? Not even one picture of a girl wearing anything? What about searching for pilot costumes for boys?

“Here’s pilot costumes for boys…”

Isn’t this just a little bit ridiculous? Try police officer.

“Police officer costumes for girls…”

Crap. The boys are dressed fine again!

“And police officer costumes for boys…”

You’re an asshole Google.

“Well this is Google, I’d imagine there have to be. Here are the results for ballet dancer costumes for boys…” None.

Sorry, I meant  to ask for costumes for boys who like ballet. None.

Come on. What are you going on about? What if he wants to be a teacher? None.

“Well, then, teacher costumes for boys…” None.

Crap.

So what’s my point in all this?  I’m mostly just angry seeing how hard it seems to be for a young girl to find a reasonable costume option for what they are: a young girl. Now, these smart young girls are probably far smarter than I am and far less jaded when it comes to this kind of crap. They can probably see a costume on a boy and think “hey, that would look cool on me too.” But why should they have to stretch their imagination just to see their own face in a firefighter costume?

Likewise, we’re pigeonholing our boys into spaces they don’t always want to be. Boys like dance and boys make great teachers. We’re not giving them an idea of manhood, we’re presenting them with an idea of manhood that quite simply doesn’t match up with their interests.

Does having equal representation of boys and girls on Google image search results mean anything? Yeah, it probably does. Maybe better representation of “girls” in these costumes would show that a girl is a young child and that girls who want to be pilots aren’t doing it for the sexy poses their uniforms might entitle them to.

Maybe a girl searching for a firefighter will see herself represented and talk to her guidance counsellor about the courses she needs to become one. Maybe a boy who searches for a ballet dancer will get a picture of someone who looks like him and maybe that will be the final push he needs to start the lessons he’s wanted to take.

There are of course places like A Mighty Girl who have an absolutely amazing collection of Halloween costumes FOR KIDS. These spaces are amazing and they’re empowering for both my daughters and for us as parents, but these spaces aren’t Google, they aren’t the spaces the masses spend hours a day on.

Maybe soon boys and girls won’t have to seek out specific individuals they see blazing trails for their gender because they’ll see there aren’t just a few boys or girls representing them, but thousands.

Originally seen on Puzzling Posts.