The Evolution of the Bunny Costume

Here's a theory of mine that I'm working on: Google "bunny costumes" and you'll three distinct categories of bunny costumes available. Firstly, there's the cute and adorable bunny costumes for invents and toddlers. Secondly, there the blander variety of bunny costume available for the pre-teen age group. Third and finally, there's the sexed up bunny costume for the teen girl. It's just a theory....

I love dressing my two adorable children up every Halloween and sending them out to beg for candy from complete strangers. Strangers who, like you, have been sucked into the over-commercialized over-hyped, over-marketed non-holiday otherwise known as Halloween. Since by law, I am required to attend to my children on regular basis and keep them safe, blah blah blah-I am forced to walk the streets with them and leave my husband at home to hand out candy to other peoples' begging children. It's a vicious cycle, and one that's rewarded by mouthfuls of teeth-rotting-insulin-spiking candy for me. Yes, I can admit that I steal the caramels from the candy sack once my kids have fallen into a sugar induced coma.

Anyways, I at least have to do my part for my kids’ sake and prepare for the over-commercialized over-hyped, over-marketed non-holiday otherwise known as Halloween. There are certain things I get excited about at this time of year and generally speaking buying or making a Halloween costumes is NOT one of them. This is in part because of the lack of costume options available for little girls. On the flip side, there is no shortage of costumes available to little boys-but that’s another post.

I’m usually the first one out the door and in the car anytime there’s shopping involved. However, my husband’s job has brought us to a remote and isolated little town with zero options for shopping locally. Simply put, there's one store in town and it only sells gas, cigarettes, beer, potato chips and condoms. So the twenty year olds in town are all set for a fun night of Halloween festivities, but I am not. Therefore, I must do most of my shopping for this year’s over-commercialized over-hyped, over-marketed non-holiday otherwise known as Halloween online.

Have you Googled Halloween costumes? Have you? Holy crap! There's no end to it. You may as well just put a sign on your door that reads: "Gone berry picking. Be back in one week". This is because it will take you that amount of time to find the site that will ultimately sell you this years' Halloween costume. Ugh. It's a daunting task because of the sheer number of online outlets, stores, etc. And they all offer various deals, discounts, free shipping, etc. It's overwhelming. It's kind of like when you're a little kid in a big candy store with a ten dollar bill and you're suddenly overwhelmed with the responsibility of how to spend it.

Yes, I really do over-think this shit too much. My husband thanks you in advance for your condolences.

You're homework here folks is to pick a just one site that sells costumes for little girls. No, not because you're a pervert, but because if you are like me, you have a little girl that needs a costume this year. Jackass. Brace yourself for what you're about to find; it ain't pretty. What I saw pisses me off to no end. What I saw was mind-numbing few options available to little girls who don't want to dress up like a little hellishly adorable Disney princess or a fairy with freakishly cute wings. God help you if you're a child a color or anything other than white because there's nothing out there for you either. And, if you are a cool feminist mom, you encourage your daughter to be a mystery solving, music writing, nature loving, science fearing girl. Fat chance there's a costume anywhere to cover any of that.

Many sites offer a limited assortment of costumes for little girls wanting to be a fairy, princess, ballerina, mermaid and the like (think Disney here folks) that smack you right in the face with gender stereotyping. Some sites offer a broader range of costumes that will hit you over the head with cuteness, and include costumes for little girls who want to look like a ladybug, bunny or cat. You know, because little girls aren’t taken seriously and can only be cute. There are even sites that boast a selection of costumes for little girls who want vamp it up a notch and enhance the sexual exploitation of their own gender by dressing like a maid, wench, vixen, geisha girl etc.

I must be said that very few sites offered up costumes for gender neutral careers, or ethnic diversity, or non-gender stereotyped options. What a shame. How hard is it to offer up a Dora the Explorer costume? Or a Nancy Drew mystery solver costume? Or how about a female Jane Goodall costume? Or an Amelia Earhart costume?

Perhaps most appalling was the not-so subtle way these sites posed the little girls in a way that was bordering on sexually exploitive. Just look for yourself and you'll get the picture pretty quick. On the positive side though I did come across one site that did  offer up an impressive variety of costumes for girls that included a nurse costume, gangster costume, Dutch girl costume, Virgin Mary costume, Incredible-Violet costume, Native American girl costume, etc. All very impressive, but is it enough when the majority of the other costumes miss the mark in so many other ways? It is rather remarkable how much the length of a skirt has gone up since I was a kid.


Call me old fashioned here, but why do we need to show so much skin? And why do we need so much sexuality for kids this age? In my humble opinion, I think it’s time we focused on costumes that offer diversity and empowerment. Give girls choices at Halloween. There’s more out there in this world for our little girls to embrace than what’s being offered to them at present. The notion that little girls should either be cute, or sexy is nauseating. I am ready to stake a claim at the local sewing club table in an attempt to get what I so desperately feel my daughter deserves: A healthy and empowering choice.