Sexy Halloween costumes have some teens’ parents worried
Gilroy – Pervy nurses. Wanton witches. A Little Bo Peep with scarcely a skirt, and a Catholic schoolgirl with a lot to confess. Sexy Halloween costumes are selling big among Gilroy teens, lending a whole new meaning to ‘adult costumes’ – and some parents find the trend more scary than sexy.
At Spirit Halloween Store, Sabra Pedrazzi thumbs through a rack of pirate costumes and sighs. Her daughters, ages 16 and 12, want to be pirates this year, but Pedrazzi says these costumes leave too little to the imagination.
“I’m almost ready to buy a boy’s costume, and try to make it a girl’s,” she says. At her fingertips is a belly-baring girls’ pirate costume: on the package, a sultry young woman fixes the viewer with an eyeliner-laden gaze. “I don’t want my 16-year-old walking around like that.”
But sexy sells: at the Downtown Halloween Shop, owner Gina Horwood says the skimpy costumes were gone long before their tamer counterparts. Companies like Leg Avenue and Secret Wishes market their risque Halloween costumes across the country, and Gilroy costume sellers say teens clamor for them.
“It’s an excuse to be flashier than normal,” said Paul Davis, a salesperson at Spirit Halloween Store. “We hear lots of moms saying, ‘Your father’s going to kill you if you bring this home.’ ”
Yet the racy costumes have flown from the racks. Monday, only a few decidedly ‘adult’ costumes remained as Ana Sandoval, a Gavilan College student, combed Spirit’s aisles, deliberating between being a buttoned-up nun or an unbuttoned nurse. She doesn’t mind seeing risque costumes on adults, she said, but with kids, it’s up to parents to draw the line. Her 7-year-old daughter, Montserrat, wouldn’t get past the door in that nurse outfit, Sandoval added. (She’s dressing as Cleopatra instead.)
Elma Mendoza said her 13-year-old daughter was planning to dress up as a prostitute before she nipped the idea. Now, she’s dressing up as Heidi, and she’ll be wearing leggings under that skirt.
“Anything that looks slutty, they’re grabbing off the shelves,” said Mendoza, who works as a domestic violence advocate at Community Solutions. “They want attention from boys, and it’s a day that they can break the rules … I’m constantly reminding my daughter to respect herself.”
The pressure to dress up by dressing down – way down – is real. Horwood said one 17-year-old picked out a long-sleeved Cruella de Vil costume from her store one day, then returned it the next after friends badgered her, saying it was “too old for her.” Her new costume? A barely-there Tinkerbell costume, that “almost covers her rear,” said Horwood. “She caved.”
What’s sexing-up Halloween? Pop culture supplies sexpot role models like Britney Spears for today’s girls, said Gavilan College professor Diane Guerrazzi. Even “little girls don’t want to be little girls,” she said. Halloween is the perfect opportunity to literally try on a new role, short skirt and all.
“There’s this huge pressure on girls to be sexy,” agreed Perla Flores, Solutions to Violence program director at Community Solutions. “Young women want to imitate Fergie from the Black-Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani and Lil’ Kim” – known better for their sex appeal than their GPAs.
Still, not all teens are buying into the sexy Halloween hype. Emily Hunter, 16, was brandishing a toy whip as she walked the aisles at Spirit Halloween Store. Dominatrix? Hardly. Hunter plans to stay well-covered Halloween night, dressed as Zorro.
“A lot of girls feel the need to look like that,” she said, glancing at a rack of trampy Little Bo Peep costumes. “Whatever they want to be” – police officer, fairy-tale princess, even referee – “it has to be shorter and smaller.”
Her objections to the trend are more practical than puritanical.
“It’s cold on Halloween night.”
The racy costumes are a no-go at school, said Mani Corzo, Gilroy High School’s dean of students. Though GHS is allowing costumes this year, the normal dress code applies. Masks and hats are also banned, so that staff can recognize students on campus. At Mount Madonna High School, no costumes are allowed, but staff member Alma Quintana said the fun is still on: at lunchtime, the school will host pumpkin carving, a pie-eating contest, an inflatable jumphouse, three-legged racing, a student-teacher softball game and a DJ.
It’s wholesome fun, even if Halloween sometimes isn’t.
