As we also talked about in class, men have an infatuation with their penis and the strength and power that comes from having the particular body part. In the article "Pills and Power Tools" that we read in class, the author states that we expect men to work like a machine and that impotence implies their whole personality is failed rather than a single body part. "We live in a culture that encourages men to think of their sexuality as residing in their penises..."(Bordo) For men, heterosexual or homosexual, the penis is their main sense of identity. One can see this by merely looking for a male Halloween costume. Buzzfeed recently wrote an article that caught my eye. 25 Sexy Halloween Costumes for Men that should NOT exist After scrolling through, you can see that about 95% of the costumes emphasize the man's penis even if this article is a pun.
Here are some of my favorites that have to do with the strength and power associated with the penis.
I really like this post and how you related it to the class reading, "Pills and Power Tools." I agree with what you have said about males and the costumes, especially the ones your provided here, but the same can be said about female costumes as well. I understand where these costumes come from, that being that the penis is the "power part" of the male. However, if you look at female costumes, they are meant to make the female look "sexy" or "hot." As stated in the movie Mean Girls, "Halloween is the one night a year where girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” While this is an exaggeration, there’s an expectation that women should look hot in Halloween costumes. Why are women only supposed to look like "sluts" or "hot" on Halloween and not men? I understand that costume manufactures use this as a selling point because generally speaking, more women than men would be accepted to wear those types of costumes; but, very well could a male dress like a "slut," I'm not saying that women are sluts, it is just a term that is being used for this special Halloween occasion. Male costumes, like above, only point to humor of a male body part; not as a entire "slut" or "hot" body. All these stereotypes just point to gender inequality even further. I do agree with what you are saying, but I think it can be even further expanded to include the female costumes as well.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked this post. The pictures made me laugh because I have never seen anything like them before. It was really clever to relate it to the article "Pills and Power Tools." I also agree with what you said about the costumes. I feel like men always make sexual jokes about women or think they are clever with their penis puns (which is shown in the pictures above) However I also agree with Chad. I feel like Halloween is specially focused around the stereotype that women get to dress like sluts. I actually had an experience this Halloween from a friend that said to me "Are you showing cleavage? Oh your not? then its not a good costume." like really? I rather be warm than dress scandalous and be cold (i have learned that the hard way) I do feel like a lot of costumes in the stores are very raveling for women because that is part of our culture now. However when it came to the mens costumes I saw this Halloween were more in how creative they could get than how sexual it can be. I do agree with both of your points though because with this holiday it just shows the true color of the person and how they want to portray themselves.
DeleteI agree with you completely with the post that you made. It is an interesting take that the costume companies promote sexual men's wear. Typically, it is emphasized that women are the ones dressing in a scandalous or promiscuous way, but it seems that it has spread to both genders. This just shows that the culture has moved towards an idea of selling sex to anyone from anyone, not being exclusive to men or women. Just like in the articles "Pills and Power Tools" the men are being made into seeming like a powerful and out rightly sexual object, considered to be constantly on and willing and that idea has moved into even the costumes that men are wearing this year. Although I do think it is more prevalent to see women dressing sexually on Halloween in our culture, it is obvious from that article (and what I saw this past Halloween) that it is not only women.
ReplyDeleteOne comment that has not been explored yet is that even though these Halloween costume were made, it is clear that it is not necessarily regarded as acceptable to the general population. The name of the article is, "costumes for men that should not exist." There is not a post about costumes for women that are explicitly sexual saying the same thing. Costumes that exploit women's bodies are expected, whereas men's costumes are meant to seem like they are standing out and are also attempting to be funny, and that is where I think the difference lies.
The manufacturers of male Halloween costumes attempt to draw the female eye toward their potent body part being the penis. This was clearly stated in the "Power Tools and Pills" article that we read in class. No male on Halloween wants women to look away from their "junk" when you have a plethora of females parading around in their less than skimpy Halloween costumes. Recently, female costumes have been becoming sluttier and sluttier as the years pass by, but this is no reason to single out the male anatomy when our body parts are still fully covered. On the other hand, you have these women who feel the need to walk around with their boobs half out of their shirt and a mini skirt that with the right gust of wind, the whole town would be given a show as to what is underneath. You cannot solely call out males on their Halloween costumes because on the other side of this male problem, there is still a large group of females that go on to purchase or create their own slutty version of any female seen in television or movies.
ReplyDeleteThere is also another category of Halloween joint costumes where the male is the dominator and the woman is the receiver such as the plug and socket Halloween costume. It does not only take the male into account to complete this costume, for he would look foolish walking around as a plug with no socket to enter. It must take both parties into account to create a costume that has this much sexual meaning. Attached is a link to Amazon.com where this costume is sold for only $35, and I saw multiple different male and female duos sporting this Saturday night of the Halloween festivities.
http://www.amazon.com/Rasta-Imposta-Lightweight-Couples-Costume/dp/B007O1XV0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383686841&sr=8-1&keywords=plug+and+socket
Great post I really like the topic. I agree that these costumes should never be worn by men, coming from a guy they actually just look ridiculous and especially inappropriate around children on Halloween. I can see how the costume companies are trying to target men by showing off their penis from power tools. Which relates well to the "Power Tools and Pills" article describing how men use their penis as a tool that can be turned on and off. But whats funny is everyone excepts the fact that girls can dress slutty and get away with it on Halloween, it seems like the one day out of the year girls can actually where something slutty and not be judged because "everyone's doing it". I feel as if the men who buy those costumes buy them as a joke but girls buy their costumes and take them seriously. All of my guy friends did something funny and not emphasizing their junk. I saw very few costumes if not any like these on Halloween. But I can tell you I saw probably 80% of girls wearing something revealing and inappropriate to be wearing in public. Hopefully this acceptable norm of women dressing like this is changed soon along with any men who wear those.
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