I’m with Joey Paur of GeekTyrant on this one since there’s nothing saying that a person can’t purchase a Mister Roger Halloween costume, but there is something that seems mildly inappropriate about it. Of course that’s a matter of opinion and could be taken or left, but since we’re here let’s explore just why it might be deemed inappropriate by some people. For one, sexualizing Mr. Rogers, a man that became famous for educating and entertaining children seems awkward at the very least since ‘won’t you be my neighbor’ seems to take on a new meaning when you see butt cheeks hanging out the back and a bust line with a black tie hanging down it in an alluring manner. That sounds increasingly prudish doesn’t it? But when you’re talking about a wholesome TV host it makes a little more sense considering that it seems as though there as as much thought put into this costume as there was into the ‘absentee father’ costume or the ‘Boston Marathon’ outfit. Seriously, some folks don’t seem to use their head when they’re thinking about what would make for a good outfit and what would be seen as something worthy of a Halloween costume.
It sounds hypocritical any way you cut in some ways since arguing for one costume but condemning another seems to be trying to hamper the choice of the people when they go to the racks or look online for a new costume. Far from it, if a person finds this acceptable to their sensibilities then by all means, spend the $50 and go as an alluring Ms. or Mrs. Rogers for Halloween and have a good time. But if people give you odd looks and some even turn their noses up at you, don’t be too surprised. At that point it becomes a matter of whether you can stand the barbs and slings and arrows that people might launch your way for daring to dress up like sexy version of a man that actually went to Washington DC to save funding for public TV, saving the budget for educational programs that might have been cut if not for his efforts. Maxwell Strachan of Huffpost has a little more on this story if you want to take a look, but it kind of underlines just how important Mr. Rogers really was when it came to educational programming and to the budget that was allotted for TV.
There are a lot of TV characters that get sexualized and many of them involve cartoon characters. This is a matter of personal taste however since a child wearing a costume is typically quite different from an adult wearing the same costume since the adult will have other things on their mind during Halloween than a child if they’re going to a party or doing anything but taking their children trick or treating. A lot of adults won’t even dress up since they want their children to have fun and be the focus of the evening. But when adults get together on Halloween and want to party things can be quite a bit different. In a big way it doesn’t matter if a person wants to wear this costume since it’s more about the sensibilities of those around the individual wearing the costume and their own sense of self-worth that will be able to affect their way of thinking.
When you think about children’s cartoons and various TV hosts that kids watch it becomes easy to think of just how easy it is to sexualize the lot of them. From one show to another there are plenty of shows and characters that can be viewed in different ways that are seen as less than acceptable by some people, but it does seem as though Mr. Rogers should have been one that could be left alone, though again, limiting the choice of the people doesn’t seem entirely wise. At this point it might be wise to call it a wash and simply state that people have the right to dress up as they want, but it’s wise to know that there are going to be looks and a few well-placed words from those that don’t approve that need to be weathered. Zeynep Yenisey of Maxim had something to say about this as well, citing what the model that wore the outfit went through when the backlash hit.
If you don’t much care about what people say then this might be the costume for you, but if you’re thin-skinned enough that you can’t stand people talking badly about you or the choices you make then you might want to keep looking. Dressing up as a sexy cartoon character is seemingly okay, perhaps in adult parties, but trying to do a sexual take on a real-life figure that was known by so many as the popular host of a children’s TV show is bound to come with a bit of controversy. If you can handle it, do it, if not, keep looking.
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