Last week, an image of a hairy man in a bustier donning the “Unisex Call Me Caitlyn” Halloween costume went viral, sparking outrage and apetition to cease sale of the item.
Spirit Halloween, the nation’s third largest Halloween retailer behind Walmart and Party City, drew heat for the man-in-drag interpretation of the Vanity Fair magazine cover introducing Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, to the world. Problem is Spirit Halloween had nothing to do with that particular costume, nor the image.
News reports mistakenly linked the photo to Spirit Halloween, although it came from smaller online outlets WholesaleHalloweenCostumes.comand Anytimecostumes.com.
Compounding the error, several of the reports ran the image with text from a Spirit Halloween spokesperson describing the costume as “celebratory” of Jenner, which seemed disingenious, at best. In reality, the Spirit Halloween spokesperson was not referencing the image readers saw — but readers didn’t know that.
Spirit Halloween’s “Caitlyn” costume.
That’s not to say that Spirit Halloween isn’t in the Caitlyn Jenner costume business. The retailer’s “Caitlyn” corset is featured on its website with an image of a female model in a bustier, posing the way Jenner did on the Vanity Fair cover.
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The retailer never used the term “unisex” to market the product, Steven Silverstein, CEO of Spencer Spirit Holdings, Inc., parent company of Spirit Halloween, told Forbes. “We tried to recreate her magazine cover look,” while presenting her “like a real life super hero,” he said.
“Halloween is so heavily influenced by super heroes from Batman to Superman to Capt. America to Wonder Woman,” He said. ”In real life … [Jenner has] triumphed at the most grueling of all challenges, from the 1976 Olympic decathlon to her now courageous, unprecedented and public emergence, she inspires unique aspiration. She is most definitely a role model through uncommon adversity.”
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Regarding the appropriateness of any Caitlyn Jenner Halloween costume, Silverstein said Jenner is fair game, due to her celebrity and public persona. ”Very recognizable, visible celebrities, like Obama, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, are part of the Halloween culture.” And the costume will be featured in its stores as championing, as opposed to mocking, an American icon, he said.
Anytimecostumes.com’s “Unisex Miss-Ter Olympic Wig.”
Meanwhile, Anytimecostumes.com is standing by its mocking take on Jenner’s transition from male to female — sort of.
A caption that — until Monday — appeared on the site alongside its Jenner-inspired wig, has been revised to “better reflect our intention,” the retailer said in an email to Forbes.
The prior text: “Be an advocate for the liberal agenda in this Unisex Miss-ter Olympic Wig! If you can’t identify as a male, throw on this brunette wig that offers a modern style and straight cut. Complete your costume by ordering a medal that shows what used to be of the infamous Bruce Jenner.” Unpacking the peculiarly mangled mean spiritedness of the caption is worthy of its own story.
The revised caption reads: “Be an advocate for Halloween fun with this Unisex Miss-ter Olympic Wig! Throw on this wig that offers a modern style and straight cut. Complete your costume by ordering a medal for added Olympic-sized wit!”
Anytimecostumes.com said the complete costume with the bustier and pageant sash is no longer for sale because it was discontinued by the manufacturer.
And as for the Unisex Mister Olympic Wig image, which is still being sold on the site, featuring a man in full makeup with stubble and long flowing hair, “We satirize everyone!” the company said. “We are in the business of taking a fun approach to what’s relevant, and letting people put on a costume and be part of it.”
But this particular brand of “satire,” by definition, is fraught. It invites the precise mockery — one often accompanied by violence — that’s long plagued the transgender community.
It’s designed to elicit a “man-in-drag” chuckle, a dissonance that Anytimecostumes.com is implicitly betting will inspire men to dress up like Caitlyn Jenner for Halloween and drum up sales. And it capitalizes on the internal dissonance that Jenner, 65, long endured, one that prompted her transition from male to female this year.
Presentation is a word often used to describe how members of the transgender community express their gender identity. Caitlyn Jenner presents — and identifies — as female, yet Anytimecostume.com lampoons that transition with a 5 o’clock-shadowed male in a feminine wig.
By contrast, Spirit Halloween’s Caitlyn Jenner costume, now available on its website, is in line with Jenner’s presentation of herself, showcasing a female model in a bustier. The Caitlyn Corset set and Caitlyn Wig will be available in Halloween Sprit’s 1,165 pop-up stores from mid-September through Nov. 1.
Still, should the (likely) possibility of men wearing Caitlyn Jenner-inspired Halloween costumes this year, even if they’re not being marketed as such, preclude their existence?
Your thoughts are welcome.
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