With Halloween this week, people were out in full force with their costumes.

Capital Newspapers printed a story about the trend towards sexier Halloween costumes, for women and girls alike.

The popularity of the risque young girls’ and teen costumes parallels the demand for racy women’s costumes. At some stores, the aisles for those clothes have the feel of a porn shop, with selections made by Playboy, among other brands.

But the sexier costumes don’t come without costs, according to UW-Madison Sociology professor Myra Marx Ferree. Ferree argues that “portraying young girls as innocent and sweet children but sexy at the same time is part of the ‘Lolita-ization’ of young girls.”

Ferree said this over-sexualization is sending a mixed message to girls.

Frequently in American culture, women are viewed as sex objects, but “at the same time, we’re telling girls, don’t have sex, let’s not talk about sex education, let’s not talk about responsible sex,” Ferree said. “That’s the ambivalence in the culture.”

I thought this article was interesting because of Ferree’s argument about potentially contradictory messages in terms of how females are depicted in culture versus how they’re told to act, as well as the potentially helpful role of sex education in making sense of all of it. What do you think? Have you noticed an increase in sexier apparel and general attitudes among young girls? If so, do you think the increasing sexualization of females is worsened by a lack of education and discussion to explain how to deal with it?

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