fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2008-08-28 07:15 pm
some_stars) wrote2008-08-28 07:15 pm
because we open tomorrow and i will have to quit staring at our merchandise in horror
or at least not this kind of horror: one interesting thing about working at a Halloween store is how incredibly conservative the costumes are socially. apparently it's a holiday of enormous cultural tension on multiple levels! and of course i suspect it's the kind of situation where the demand for costumes is reinforced/created to some degree by what's supplied, and back and forth, but...wow. the gender divide is INTENSE. and not just in the sense that there's a huge, huge wall of "Sexy [Occupation/Character] costumes for women, or the nightmare that is the children's department. although the Sexy aspect is even more intense when you're spending all day in the middle of it like this--there's a whole section for stockings and fetishy shoes, and officially licensed Playboy “costumes,” and vast swathes of women’s outfits that don’t even pretend to be costumes proper but are just really cheaply made, flimsy ~sexywear~ with sometimes a vague gothy tinge.
but the men’s outfits too! the BOXES upon BOXES of comical fake breasts and asses, fake-muscle shirts that are supposed to be just as obviously fake as the breasts, inanimate object costumes like the "Mammogram Machine," and an enormous amount of “personality” costumes that represent just about every unpleasant male stereotype in the world, especially the ones where you can bring in some kind of gross bodily-function humor. (also, a completely fucking ridiculous number of priest costumes. like, they outnumber the men’s vampire costumes by a factor of ten.) so not only are women allowed/required to cut loose and release their ~inner sluts,~ men are supposed to be releasing their inner assholes. Also, there are a handful of "crossdresser" costumes, which are basically packages of oversized, usually-midriff-revealing, slutty and/or grotesquely feminine clothing, deliberately horrible wigs, and some kind of stick-on stubble. the facial hair or leg hair is ESSENTIAL, because of course the point is to dress up as A Crossdresser, not to actually crossdress; the comedy is in the failure. GOD, i wish i could take pictures for you guys of the cover photos on the packages. they're so instructive--literally, in that they tell the buyer how the costume is supposed to be worn not just physically but culturally. the facial expressions, the accessories--!
AND THE RACISM. this is what really actually shocked me, because i was expecting gender-related grossness, although not to the sheer degree that i’m seeing, but--i’ve been organizing the hat area? and today i got handed the following shipments, in increasing order of what the actual fuck:
1. comedy sombreros with TEQUILA printed on the brim
2. beaded/feathered "Indian headdresses"
3. A STACK OF FUCKING CHINESE COOLIE HATS. I didn't realize that one was even floating around anymore, although since I remember it from children's books when I was little of course I should have predicted this. They are of course grotesquely cheaply made and some of them have ~Oriental~ decoration.
the most horrible part is that since I have basically two facing walls to work with, and because I'd already set up kids/scary/gothy/party/"pimp" on one wall, and because this is Texas and we're stocking ten million different kinds of cowboy hat--I basically ended up with A WALL OF RACIST OLD-WEST BLACKFACE GEAR. I am now terrified to look too closely at the weapons, accessories, or masks, because we probably stock plastic tomahawks and slant-eyed rubber masks and if I don't know about it, I don't have to help someone buy it.
and i haven't even gotten to talking about the Pimp Section yet. WE HAVE A PIMP SECTION. like, there's the general costumes arranged by age and gender, and then a special Pirate Area because capitalism, where we stick a bunch of pirate-related hats and gear so it's all in one place. AND THEN THE PIMP SECTION. which is in fact where we put a selection of pimp suits, hats, canes, and gold plastic jewelry. I think I saw sets of fake teeth with plastic ~bling~ in them, too. and it's actually located almost at the direct center of the store, so it's like this horrific flashing black hole of gender, race, and class-related UTTER FAIL.
in conclusion, Halloween is now permanently ruined for me, and it's not even September yet.
--oh, oh, but to our credit, we can provide you with severed rubber limbs in at least one non-Caucasian skintone!
but the men’s outfits too! the BOXES upon BOXES of comical fake breasts and asses, fake-muscle shirts that are supposed to be just as obviously fake as the breasts, inanimate object costumes like the "Mammogram Machine," and an enormous amount of “personality” costumes that represent just about every unpleasant male stereotype in the world, especially the ones where you can bring in some kind of gross bodily-function humor. (also, a completely fucking ridiculous number of priest costumes. like, they outnumber the men’s vampire costumes by a factor of ten.) so not only are women allowed/required to cut loose and release their ~inner sluts,~ men are supposed to be releasing their inner assholes. Also, there are a handful of "crossdresser" costumes, which are basically packages of oversized, usually-midriff-revealing, slutty and/or grotesquely feminine clothing, deliberately horrible wigs, and some kind of stick-on stubble. the facial hair or leg hair is ESSENTIAL, because of course the point is to dress up as A Crossdresser, not to actually crossdress; the comedy is in the failure. GOD, i wish i could take pictures for you guys of the cover photos on the packages. they're so instructive--literally, in that they tell the buyer how the costume is supposed to be worn not just physically but culturally. the facial expressions, the accessories--!
AND THE RACISM. this is what really actually shocked me, because i was expecting gender-related grossness, although not to the sheer degree that i’m seeing, but--i’ve been organizing the hat area? and today i got handed the following shipments, in increasing order of what the actual fuck:
1. comedy sombreros with TEQUILA printed on the brim
2. beaded/feathered "Indian headdresses"
3. A STACK OF FUCKING CHINESE COOLIE HATS. I didn't realize that one was even floating around anymore, although since I remember it from children's books when I was little of course I should have predicted this. They are of course grotesquely cheaply made and some of them have ~Oriental~ decoration.
the most horrible part is that since I have basically two facing walls to work with, and because I'd already set up kids/scary/gothy/party/"pimp" on one wall, and because this is Texas and we're stocking ten million different kinds of cowboy hat--I basically ended up with A WALL OF RACIST OLD-WEST BLACKFACE GEAR. I am now terrified to look too closely at the weapons, accessories, or masks, because we probably stock plastic tomahawks and slant-eyed rubber masks and if I don't know about it, I don't have to help someone buy it.
and i haven't even gotten to talking about the Pimp Section yet. WE HAVE A PIMP SECTION. like, there's the general costumes arranged by age and gender, and then a special Pirate Area because capitalism, where we stick a bunch of pirate-related hats and gear so it's all in one place. AND THEN THE PIMP SECTION. which is in fact where we put a selection of pimp suits, hats, canes, and gold plastic jewelry. I think I saw sets of fake teeth with plastic ~bling~ in them, too. and it's actually located almost at the direct center of the store, so it's like this horrific flashing black hole of gender, race, and class-related UTTER FAIL.
in conclusion, Halloween is now permanently ruined for me, and it's not even September yet.
--oh, oh, but to our credit, we can provide you with severed rubber limbs in at least one non-Caucasian skintone!