His and Her-loween

It's approaching that time of year but I experienced my first shudder of horror today when I spotted this pair of gender-specific dressing-up costumes in a local budget clothes store.

The one on the right has it all with a combination of the piratical and the skeletal: jaunty striped trousers, lurid sash, impressive hat and gruesome toothy mask. On the left however we find a gauzy, glittery dress with matching pumpkin handbag and demure Alice band: nothing spooky, nothing scary and no mask! I mean, seriously, would you let your daughter go Trick-or-Treating in such a flimsy, mimsy get-up? And what red-blooded girl would want to be presented with this outfit when her brother presumably gets the other one?

Several large supermarket chains have recently scored own goals with so-called 'mental patient costumes' that have now been withdrawn from sale. Here is another example of the witless marketing that seals children into sexual stereotypes a million miles from the reality of the gender continuum.

The artist-potter Grayson Perry would doubtless love the frock but he's a transvestite man who's reached the pinnacle of cultural cool. And he doesn't need to shop at Peacocks.

[4 years ago: in the USA even the dogs dress up.]