Sexy Halloween Costumes

For 10 years I've been getting calls from journalists around Halloween who want to do an article on sexy Halloween costumes for girls. This is because I was a co-author of the APA Task Force Report on the Sexualization of Girls and maybe because of the book co-authored with Lyn Mikel Brown called Packaging Girlhood. But this time I said NO! It just became one of those deals where journalists thought they were or pretended they were doing good, but in the end just put forth into the world more sexualized photos of girlhood. They just LOVED to illustrate their articles with the wildest costumes. So this year, when APA wrote and asked if they could send journalists to me to talk about sexy Halloween costumes, I wrote:  WHY give them the opportunity to unwittingly promote sexualization, to shock and titillate? In this period of enormous girl activism, why not suggest an article that goes like this: WHAT WILL THE NEW GIRL ACTIVISM INSPIRE THIS HALLOWEEN? Will it be girls in pantsuits? Girls with pink pussycat hats? Girls in Wonderwoman or Katniss Everdeen costumes? Girls who are more interested in scaring people (watch out sexual harassers) than pleasing them with pretty in pink? Queens not princesses? Let's hope!