Kmart removes "beyond inappropriate" costume after backlash

[yoopermom]

I have (real) pumpkins on my porch in a variety of colors, so now I can only show my orange ones? I would think it's more inclusive for me to have what I have now: orange, black, green, etc, etc, etc.

And I was never into Barbie, but I dressed my Breyer horse models and stuffed animals up for various things (including weddings), so does that make me weird, too?

Sigh....

Terri

 

[L&Lfan]

Whatever happened to- if you don’t want your kid to wear it, don’t buy it?

 

[Brett Wyman]

 

[mjkacmom]

In truth, I think it actually looks like a First Holy Communion outfit.

There are black and white varieties of real pumpkins. I think the black jack o’lanterns look neat.

Our KMART (Atlantic County NJ) is having a closing sale right now. They’ll be gone before Christmas.

Girls mak8ng their first communion do look like little brides!

 

[ThisIsJason]

I have a friend who manages a Party City and went over to Halloween City for the season, he told me they had to pull two or three different costumes and/or masks because people contacted corporate becuase people found them offensive.

 

[fly girl]

Is a petition of 250 people a "backlash"?

Well it was enough for Kmart to remove it and apologize.

 

[wvjules]

Add 'blackface' pumpkins to the list of things removed from sale (Bed, Bath & Beyond, in this case)...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bed-bath-beyond-reportedly-pulls-190927432.html

Those 'blackface' pumpkins are awful! Who thought those were a good idea? As soon as I saw them I cringed.

 

[fly girl]

I have a friend who manages a Party City and went over to Halloween City for the season, he told me they had to pull two or three different costumes and/or masks because people contacted corporate becuase people found them offensive.

I wonder what they were.

I remember last year was the Sexy Handmaid's Tale.

 

[porschegrl]

I have (real) pumpkins on my porch in a variety of colors, so now I can only show my orange ones? I would think it's more inclusive for me to have what I have now: orange, black, green, etc, etc, etc.

Did you look at the photos in the article? There are some examples of black pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns that I think look pretty cool. But the ones at issue? I don't see how anyone could have thought those were a good idea.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Hmmm . . . While I agree with the points the person was making regarding child brides and child abuse, I would not have linked that to the Halloween costume. When I was a child I played dress up, and I liked emulating adults when it came to Halloween costumes. I can remember many makeshift bride outfits and would have loved having a costume like that. I guarantee if I had been a child when Prince Charles and Lady Diana married, I would have wanted to dress up like her as a bride for Halloween. I think it’s ok to find the one thing to be quite heinous, but not the other. But I respect her taking action when she believed that strongly about the issue. Whether or not such a campaign is successful, it does get people thinking and talking about things in the world that do need to be stopped.

I generally agree with you here.

I think people can be sensitive to the nature of child brides whilst at the same time not connecting them to an attire worn by girls. I had these costumes when I was a kid and was playing dressup. It doesn't have to be Halloween to wear them. I never once associated it with child brides, no one I know would associate them with child brides and when I say child brides I mean the practice of selling off children or forcing them to marry when they are a child. That does not mean that the those I know, myself included, don't find the practice of child brides as repungnant. In other words dressing up as a bride as a child to all I know does not equate to the practice of being a child bride.

 

[J'aime Paris]

Those 'blackface' pumpkins are awful! Who thought those were a good idea? As soon as I saw them I cringed.

Pumpkins come in a wide variety of colors....so why shouldn't the Jack-o-lanterns?
I've seen pink, blue, white, orange and probably other colors in addition to black.

Not directed toward anyone in particular.....Why do so many people have to make something out of nothing?
Can't we sometimes just accept that black is a color, without anything attached to it??

 

[Klayfish]

So, Australia?

Well, yes. What did you think I meant, the United States? My, my aren't you presumptuous?

OK, that's what I get for skim reading....

 

[wvjules]

View attachment 447086

Pumpkins come in a wide variety of colors....so why shouldn't the Jack-o-lanterns?
I've seen pink, blue, white, orange and probably other colors in addition to black.

Not directed toward anyone in particular.....Why do so many people have to make something out of nothing?
Can't we sometimes just accept that black is a color, without anything attached to it??

Those aren't even close to the BB&B ones.

 

[J'aime Paris]

Those aren't even close to the BB&B ones.

I know what the ones from BB&B look like, and plenty others from different stores. They are a Halloween novelty item, and nothing more.

 

[DuskKodesh]

The pumpkins just look like black pumpkins with white triangle eyes, a white triangle nose, and teeth that had people's names in them to me. As someone that grew up with racist relatives who had... let's say 'rustic decor' trust me, it's not even close. I know the craft stores here have had black pumpkins with a variety of faces for at least ten years and it sounds like the ones in the article were decorated by the law firm so... they were just black pumpkins when at BB&B? Or maybe they just added the names?

 

[DuskKodesh]

On a related note, anyone else seen the 'sexy' Mr. Rogers & Bob Ross costumes?

 

[EMom]

We saw a sexy/slutty nun costume this weekend. . When I was a kid, moms wore slips and half slips. We’d borrow the white half slips to use as wedding veils. So happy people were less easily triggered back then.

 

[soccerdad72]

Those 'blackface' pumpkins are awful! Who thought those were a good idea? As soon as I saw them I cringed.

Honestly, they didn't really remind me of blackface - just a black pumpkin. I swear, I've seen similar ones all over the place.

 

[kiddo76]

Those 'blackface' pumpkins are awful! Who thought those were a good idea? As soon as I saw them I cringed.

Yes! When I first read an article on FB on it, I kind of rolled my eyes. The picture they had with the article was a stock photo of black pumpkins with carved and glowing faces. I saw nothing offensive about it. Then I saw the.picture of the actual pumpkins in questions and can absolutely understand how some would associate it with black face.

The is nothing wrong with black jack o'lanterns in general. In the BB&B case, it was poor execution.

 

[Summer2018]

I think that reaction is over the top. How do you go from a little girl pretending to be a bride for Halloween all the way to human trafficking?!!! I used to use my mother's lace curtains to play dress-up as a bride. It was completely innocent.

Children pretend. It's a healthy and natural part of development. My students pretend to be all sorts of roles in our classroom Dramatic Play Center. Right now we are learning about Fire Safety, so we have transformed our little kitchen area into a Fire Department. The kids are dressing up as Fire Fighters. Is that going to cause them to become pyromaniacs?

Human trafficking, pedophilia, etc., are extremely serious issues. I think that connecting a child's Halloween costume to such evil is beyond ridiculous.