Some new commentary on Girls's Costume Warehouse

Back in 2007, I worked for a now-defunct adult website.

In preparation for recording videos, one of my bosses ordered the big, phonebook sized costume catalogs from companies like Leg Avenue. I leafed through them with fascination, because, after all, I'm a costume geek at heart.

And then suddenly it dawned on me:

We, as a society, have so bought in to the "Halloween is the time to for women dress like a stripper" idea, that literally, we go to costume stores and buy actual costumes marketed to the adult industry the other eleven months of the year.

There is so much to be said here involving slut shaming, stigmatization of sex workers, the virgin/whore dichotomy, the commoditization of women's bodies, etc etc etc.

There's nothing wrong with sexy costumes, please don't misunderstand me. I just wanted to highlight the extremely literal manifestation of this societal idea.