A Victoria mom has taken thrift-store giant Value Village to task for carrying sexualized Halloween costumes for girls.
And won.
Raina Delisle went to the Store Street Value Village for a firefighter costume for daughter Ocea, who will turn four next month.
The firefighter costume for boys ages four to six featured the traditional bright red and yellow jacket, a red helmet and a plastic axe. The firefighter costume for girls the same age, however, gave Delisle the creeps.
“It was a skin-tight skimpy dress,” she said. “It also came with a fascinator instead of a real helmet. I was absolutely disgusted.
“The message this sends is that boys can do the real job and wear the real gear. Girls cannot. Girls can only dress up in ensembles that put the focus on their appearance instead of their abilities.”
The provocative costumes weren’t the only ones turning up in the kiddie aisle.
The packaging for a police costume featured a photo of a girl clad in a shiny blue minidress and calf-high boots, her left arm raised in a jaunty salute.
Even the pumpkin costume, with a black bodice and orange-ribboned corset, was sexy.
The costumes were under the brand name Alterego and were available exclusively at Value Village.
Delisle, a communications officer at Royal Roads University, contacted Value Village’s head office, first as a concerned mom, then in her capacity as a freelance writer.
On Monday afternoon, Value Village, known as Savers in the U.S., issued a statement saying it was pulling the costumes from all of its Canadian and U.S. stores.
“We’ve taken the recent comments surrounding certain Halloween costumes sold in our stores very seriously, and as such, are removing this merchandise from our sales floors,” communications director Sara Gaugl said.
“We apologize to those who were offended, and as we move forward, we will evaluate all costumes and packaging keeping this specific customer feedback in mind.”
Delisle said she was pleased by the company’s quick response, and added that the sexy-costume fiasco can present a good opportunity for parents to talk to kids about the underlying messages behind something as seemingly innocuous as a Halloween costume.
“This hyper-sexualization is much more than just the costume,” said Delisle. “It conveys a message to girls that their body is more important than their brain, and leads to the objectification of women.”
