Fishnets for 5-year-olds?

10-26-2008 National:

What's scary about Halloween is the costumes for girls

One costume is called "The Ravager." The model wears fishnet stockings, a choker with chains on it, a black and red buckled bodice and a lipsticked pout.

It comes in sizes small enough for a 5-year-old.

The "Lovely Lolita" costume is for teens. The short kimono costume is pictured with thigh-high stockings. "Lolita" is a classic novel about a pedophile and is named for the girl with whom he is obsessed.

Welcome to Halloween 2008.

There's also the "Naughty Nurse," the "Cheerless Leader" and "Supergirl," a costume that skims the belly and the bosom, leaving just enough room to squeeze in an "S."

One costume company has a line called "Hottie Totties" for teen and pre-teen girls. Disguise Inc. says: "Fun, flirty and hot! Hottie Tottie costumes are a little on the sweet side with a splash of sass blending the look you want with the coverage mom will approve."

"Maid Purr-fect," a costume from the line, is a pink and black French maid/kitty cat outfit, with detachable tail, garter, feather duster and ears.

"That's the trend this year. The short and sexy has gone down to the little ones," said Debbie Meredith. Her store, Akron Design & Costume Co., in Ohio, sells and rents costumes nationwide.

The store's more traditional costumes for girls - a pilgrim and Little Red Riding Hood - don't sell too well.

"Everything short and sexy has taken over Halloween," Meredith said.

She said her store sells petticoats to extend the length of the skirts and regular stockings to go with the sexier costumes instead of the fishnet thigh-highs they are shown with.


Walk into the kids' room at Dougherty's Masquerade, in Syracuse, N.Y., and you'll be greeted by the "Lovely Lolita" costume as well as "You Sexy Witch" and "Very Bat Girl."

Employee Bethany Fecteau, 29, said she wouldn't have been allowed to wear most of the costumes the store sells for girls.

"Even the ones for younger kids are getting sexier," Fecteau said.

The more standard fare - a knee-length Dorothy outfit, a pilgrim and an Indian - are there, but they look dusty.

Racy costumes can provide a teaching moment for parents, said Eileen Zurbriggen, who teaches at the University of California at Santa Cruz and served on a task force of the American Psychological Association on the sexualization of girls.

Parents can ask their daughters why they want to wear the Lolita or the naughty nurse costume, and what they think other people will think of them in that costume.

"And also give her the message, "Well, here's how I see you as a person: You're a great writer. And your poetry is so beautiful. And you kick a soccer goal with the best of them,"' Zurbriggen said. ""I want you to be a whole person with all of the aspects of who you are. That's what I love about you."' Howard Beige is vice president of Rubie's Costume Co. in Melville, N.Y., which has been making Halloween costumes for decades. This year, it has more than 1,000 styles. Some of them are a little flashier, a little sexier, he said. His company makes both the Ravager - the one that shows fishnets, buckles and choker for a 5-year-old - and a traditional princess with a knee-length dress.

"Here's one thing that no one's talking about: It's the mother that's making the purchase," said Beige.

The costumes are not made in a vacuum, he said. Everyday clothes show midriffs, too.

"It's not just Halloween," he said. "It's the world we live in today." ..News Source.. by Marnie Eisenstadt , Newhouse News Service