By Culley Schultz

I recently walked into the grocery store and was greeted by heaping bins of fun-sized Halloween candy and bags of candy corn. With Fall’s favorite holiday edging closer everyday, more and more Halloween costumes and advertisements are appearing. Some of this already caused quite a stir and SPARK talked back!

Ricky’s, a New York-based costume store known for selling outrageous neon wigs and accessories, stocked up on Halloween costumes for the season. To begin with, most of these costumes feature “sexy” in their name. A woman looking for a Halloween outfit could dress herself as a “Sexy Indian Princess” or “Sexy SWAT Team Member.” (Nice choices, right?)

But at the top of the horrifying costumes list, was “Anna Rexia.” This choice featured a tight black dress with a skeleton print and a tape measure around the waist. Surprisingly, contrary to the message spread by the costume itself, the dress is cut for a rather busty buyer. While Halloween costumes and the limited options for women are a common source of contention, this one may take the prize in my book.

Ricky’s pulled the costume quickly after receiving backlash, telling the The Village Voice that the product was not supposed to be sold anymore. (There was obviously some sort of crucial oversight since the product ended up on store shelves, right?) But they weren’t the only ones selling it: it was also available at HalloweenStore.com.

SPARK Director Dana Edell immediately posted a petition asking for the removal of the costume on Change.org. Dana reflected, “It was thrilling to witness how powerful we consumers actually are! HalloweenStore.com seemed to panic as soon as they noticed our petition accusing them of celebrating and sexualizing the leading cause of death for 15-24 year old girls. They were spooked that our petition could turn masses (including parents looking for kid-friendly costumes) away from their website in disgust.”

William Walters, the National Eating Disorders Association coordinator, also commented about the impact of this so-called costume. “It makes light of something really serious…It’s hard for [the association] to find it funny,” he told The Village Voice.

It’s also probably hard for the 12-million people suffering from eating disorders in the country to find it funny, too. The costume perpetuates the belief that it is most important to be thin, not to be healthy.

After only 267 signatures on the SPARK petition and the outraged stirred, HalloweenStore.com pulled the product from it’s shelves and website immediately, promising never to sell it again.

Who is the person who came up with this costume idea in the first place? Who decided that it would be a good idea to sell a costume that encourages an eating disorder? I think it is disgusting that we lack the creativity to come up with something more interesting and empowering than a skeleton with a measuring tape.

What we really need are costumes that allow women to show their strength and smarts, and fight back against the belief that we have to be “sexy” to have fun on Halloween. The night is supposed to be about creativity, tricks, and treats, not tight tops!

Thanks to SPARK and talking back, HalloweenStore.com pulled the piece from their stock and it is no longer offered on-line. However, this definitely shows that we have a long way to go before completely remedying the issue of over-sexualized costumes that create a bad image for women. If anything, it shows that we can SPARK a difference.