American actress Cassandra Peterson once quipped, “If ever there was a holiday that deserves to be commercialized, it’s Halloween. We haven’t taken it away from kids. We’ve just expanded it so that the kid in adults can enjoy it, too.” Dating back to 1745, Halloween is festival that Christians enjoy celebrating a lot. Falling every year on October 31st, this day is also referred to as eve of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day. These days however Halloween has taken a more pagan spirit and it is not at all uncommon to see people dressed up in costumes bought or designed especially for this occasion. Initially these costumes were designed to symbolize anything that is gory, ghostly and related to death. With passing time though, these disguises have become more commercial, and people can go to any lengths to hog the limelight.
While many costumes are wacky and unusual, there are some that have often raised eyebrows. For example, when Cecil the lion had been killed by a dentist, a lingerie brand came up with a sexy, skimpy costume, displayed by a blonde model. This seemed more like a publicity stunt, where the brand promised to contribute their revenue to a wildlife protection organization. As if this wasn’t enough, the Lion Killer Dentist Halloween costume made environmental activists go insane with rage. The model wore a dentist’s uniform, with blood splattered all over his clothes and a lion’s severed head in his hand. To top that, some other company came up with the Cecil’s Revenge dress, where the model wears a dentist’s costume and a lion is gnawing at his back.
Apart from these horrendous odes to poor Cecil, clothes such as the Dorothea Dix Psych Ward, Sexy Cop Costume for toddlers, the Little Amigo, Foxy Megyn Bloody Tampon and the Donna T. Rumpshaker attire enraged many across the United States. Protesters claimed that either these costumes were damaging the reputation of a certain person, or conveying messages such as those with mental illnesses were criminals. They also condemned such clothes saying that they were knowingly or unknowingly causing harm to a child’s innocence.
Do you find these controversial Halloween costumes outrageous and demeaning? Would you ever wear them if you got a chance, or do you think such attire should be taken off the shelves? If you enjoyed this trivia, hit like and please share and pass it on.
