Take Back Halloween! costume resources showed up in the linkspam recommendations.
We love Halloween. We really love Halloween. We think it’s cool that there’s one day a year when people can dress up as anything they want. What we don’t think is cool is that increasingly women are only supposed to dress up as one thing:
Sexy _____
They focus on dressing as queens, goddesses and heroines. But there’s no reason women can’t be robots, right? I mean, with the right set of halloween teeth, you can dress up as anything!
Image “Robot costume” by Rob Marquardt, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike
And there’s no reason to let men hog the Rubiks Cube:
Image “solving the cube018” by Fred Benenson, Creative Commons Attribution
And there’s no reason that a squid monster can’t have a feminine touch!
Image “lady ika” by Hawken King, Creative Commons Attribution
Here’s your geek feminist costume planning thread. Are you going to any costume parties soon? Have you got any awesome costumes from the past to share, or inspirational links? Are you not sexy or geek sexy or don’t care for Halloween?
Geek Feminism Blog 
Last year, I worn a witch dress and also carried a real witch’s brush lOl but I didn’t have a witch’s hat. So amazing. When I appeared, everyone shouted out “woa”. It made me a little shame, but later, it was all ok.
I always love Halloween. And now, I consider the rubik cube one. Haha, that seems to be so funny. Love it!
I was The Cheat, from Strongbad, for several years. In a relative-size reversal, my small nephew was Strongbad. My costume: a yellow poncho, floor-length, with black spots painted on the back, and a box that fortuitously already had a head-shaped hole (more or less) in it, with a little tuft sticking up, and some yellow-painted cheesecloth to conceal my face while allowing me to breathe and see. I painted spots on the back, and The Cheat’s face. It was great fun.
One year, my roommate and I were a set: I had a light blue skirt and a light blue shirt with clouds and a sun painted on it. She had a black dress with a reproduction of Van Gogh’s Starry Night on it, with pigtails dipped in water-soluble printer’s ink. Together we were … skyclad.
I’ve been a Jedi (in the event of a power outage, which we happened to have, the lightsaber is very useful until the emergency lights kick in).
I’ve been Deanna Troi, which was probably the sexiest of all the costumes.
My wife and I are going as Lemmings(TM) this year. It’s actually a bit lazy, we’ve worn the costumes before. But that party involved a different group of friends, so we’re probably safe!
This year I’m a flamingolope (like a jackalope, but a flamingo), the sexiness of which was determined by the best looking pink thing on the clearance rack at Old Navy. It actually turned out pretty well and I may wear that dress again… after dying it to not-pink.
My favorite costume ever was years ago, when Halloween overlapped with a weekly game night. My 3 flatmates and I dressed up as Sorry pieces: primary colors all over, holding sorry cards. Periodically, we’d play cards on each other. So, for example, if I was over here losing a game of Carcassone, and one of the flatmates was over there winning a game of Blokus, I would wander over and hand them an eleven card. At which point they’d have to trade places, and take over my crappy seat in Carcasonne.
It was a thing of beauty.
Omg, I was JUST talking about this sort of thing on my twitter, based on going to a Halloween store and rolling my eyes at the sorts of costumes available. But, while I guess slightly OT, here is a picture of me dressed as a jolly rancher in 2nd grade: http://twitpic.com/2y09k1 This is funny to me in hindsight, because even back then in 2nd grade, almost every other girl was dressing up as a princess or something similar. I guess I’m glad I didn’t get that message, or decided not to follow it.
I’ve been working super hard on a robot costume. I can safely say that it is not sexy :)
I’ve basically been recreating the robot from the Beastie Boys video for Intergalactic. My boyfriend is going to be a Beastie Boy. That was much easier to make than the robot costume!
Lets say no to sexy costumes, and wear a big robot skin for Halloween. I love it, instead of complaining about the masquarade of sexy costumes that are ‘for’ women lets make some good ones.
Hello,
Just discovered your blog – yay for more girl geeks, and yay for halloween. I love halloween, and costume parties in general. My fiancé and I were planning on going to a halloween party dressed as robots so I’m definitely a fan of the robot costume, in fact we’d been planning it since the end of last year’s halloween party…when we were dressed as Cthulu & a Deep One (green ballgown, lizardy mask & webbed green evening gloves – geeky and elegant!). But then we got engaged & my Hen-do is going to be on Halloween & will be fancy dress so I’m going as a zombie bride.
I think we’ll save the cardboard boxes for next year’s robot costumes though. Good luck with whatever costume you choose!
Chloe
My mother tells me that the first year I was old enough to choose my halloween costume, I wanted to go as a circle. Like, the shape. My mother, being a supermom with mad skills, totally made it happen.
This year I had the totally awesome idea to go as Computer Engineer Barbie, but sadly did not have the awesome idea in time to make the tee shirt and jacket. But I know what my hall costume’s going to be next convention season.
I was Emma Frost last time, which was both nerdy and over-sexed. I love the character because she’s all about the explicit and conscious construction of femininity and was part of how I got into queer theory. Well, her and Steven Jay Gould. It’s complicated, okay?
This year I’m going as Ziggy Stardust, as long as I can find some appropriate hot pants. This way I get to be over-sexed, nerdy and androgynous all at the same time. I’m a costume nerd, and so part of the joy for me is playing with my sexuality in ways I don’t during the rest of the year.
One of my friends does awesome self-made costumes. One year she was a tree with a cat stuck up her, and a fire truck on her shoe to try to rescue it. Another she was a spork. I was out of town the year she did a neil gaiman-themed party, which was sad because I really really really wanted to be Delirium’s goldfish. Even if I couldn’t figure out how to fly…
At risk of turning this into a ridiculous link thread… A friend of mine sent me this as the example of the strangest “sexy” costumes he’d seen this year, and since they’re pretty geeky I feel a need to share. So I give you… Sexy Chewbacca, storm trooper, and Darth Vader:
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/10/of_course_there_is_sexy_chewba.php
Note the lack of helmets, as that would reduce your ability to stare smoulderingly into the camera.
They’re so terrible that they’re almost good. If I saw a woman who’d thought of and executed this herself for ridiculousness’s sake, I’d probably be amused, but since it’s just another exploitive sexy costume company looking to make a buck off geeks, it’s a little sad.
Halloween used to tick me off pretty bad, years ago, because I felt the twin pressures of Must Wear A Sexy-Cool Costume, and Must Not Wear Revealing Clothes Because You Are A Fat And Ugly Nerd. Both pressures tended to collide and cancel each other out, and I’d just spend the evening inside. With the lights off.
My head is much more together now, and this year’s costume will be sweet. I’m going as the 4th Doctor! Tom Baker version. Jelly Babies and poofy brown hair and a scarf, woot! It’s super-nerdy, and it’s not something you’d be expecting from a girl.
I’ve got a pretty goth dress that I’m doctoring up into a witch costume for work, and I guess you could consider that to be sexy… I’m still fat. I think I look fantastic in it. And that means a lot to me, on a personal level. I am essentially standing up and giving the middle finger to every chortling douchebag that ever went “ew fat chicks shouldn’t wear costumes”. I like that I’ve got the option to step up and be “sexy” if I want, and the option to opt out and wear a costume that requires pants.
Post-Apocalyptic Velma. I have a red miniskirt, some big brown boots, a skull belt buckle, and a wicked looking knife. Jinkies indeed.
Not the main point of the post, I know, but I really dislike slogans that use the “Take Back _____” formula. Take Back Halloween…Take Back Vermont…Take Back America…. They’re all predicated on the same arrogant and (usually) angry idea that the people doing the taking have some prior and superior claim of ownership over ______ compared to whoever it is they’re “re-“taking _____ from.
I mean, it’s one thing in a campaign like Take Back the Night, where the issue was rape and other violent crime, but when the issue is about defining the social mores or in-group/out-group identities associated with something, I’m sorry, but no one owns that.
I have done both the world’s easiest LEGO brick costume and then repurposed it the following year as a robot, complete with flashing lights. Giant cardboard boxes FTW!
I suppose I could also wear my Tetris dress as a costume …
I’m going as Hades. Lady Hades.
Not this year, but one day I will dress up as Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Sexy: yes, but sexy as a man. I’ve got a friend who can do a really good Dracula, and the boyfriend is reasonably happy to be Richter.
I tend to wear all black and go as the techie who does stuff for the kids to make their costumes work. ^_^
I am going as broccoli. Lots of kids fear my appearance on their plate. Also, it’s sort of sexy in a June Cleaver way since the main component is a retro green cocktail dress. So “sexy” and scary but also silly. Very, very silly.
Mad surgeon last year; giant mutant lobster this year!