Caitlyn Jenner Halloween Costume Is Being Sold At Spirit Halloween: So Offensive – Hollywood Life

Caitlyn Jenner Costume Coming This Halloween: Why This Is Totally Disrespectful

When Spirit Halloween stores open for the 2015 Halloween season, they’ll carry a Caitlyn Jenner costume and I think that’s incredibly distasteful. With a history of selling racist and offensive outfits, I think their Caitlyn costume will be just as disrespectful and Spirit should scrap it right away. Really, Spirit Halloween? I still can’t believe that you’re going to sell a Caitlyn Jenner costume during this coming holiday season. While the costume is supposed to celebrate the I Am Cait star, with your poor history of selling culturally insensitive outfits, I think it will do the opposite. Before it's too late, you need to pull the costume from your shelves.

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Caitlyn Jenner Halloween Costume
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Spirit Halloween confirmed to Daily News that their stores would sell the costume this year and HollywoodLife.com reached out to Caitlyn’s rep for a comment on this. Spirit Halloween’s Marketing and PR supervisor, Trisha Lombardo EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife.com, “At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes. We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that.”

Forgive me if I don’t throw Spirit a parade. While it sounds like Spirit Halloween’s heart is in the right place, they don’t have a great track record when it comes to “celebrating” others. Spirit Halloween “celebrates” Mexicans by turning them into stereotypes with an outfit that features a sombrero, a poncho and a long moustache. They “celebrate” Native Americans by reducing their culture and history into a line of racist and sexy costumes. Spirit “celebrates” Jewish people by selling a “Kosher Hotdog” costume that comes with an insensitive payot wig, allowing anyone to mockingly portray a Hasidic Jew.

What else bothers me about Spirit’s Caitlyn costume is that they mostly sell costumes of characters and fictional people. I think their Caitlyn costume will likely turn her into a caricature, an exaggeration, when she’s a real person. Plus, Spirit also doesn’t sell costumes of other reality television personalities or any major celebrities. Yes, you can get a Katniss Everdeen costume, but not one of Jennifer Lawrence. Sure, you can get a Michael Jackson Thriller outfit, but you’re out of luck if you want a Kim Kardashian costume. It doesn’t make sense to have a Caitlyn Jenner costume.

Right now, we don’t know what the costume looks like. More details will be made available when it goes on sale in the next four to six weeks, according to Trisha. But, honestly, does it matter? Even if they simply sold a replica of Caitlyn’s iconic white satin corset from her Vanity Fair cover or the elegant dress she wore at the ESPYs, I think it will reduce Caitlyn and everything she has done to a mere outfit. Even worse, it’ll be a costume — a joke.

Trisha was right when she said Caitlyn is a public figure, a celebrity, a hero and a superhero. I agree! Cait is a role model for many in the trans community, and her high-profile debut has forced many to talk about trans people for the first time. And if someone wants to dress up as Caitlyn in tribute to her, I think it’s okay so long as they’re respectful and sensitive to what Caitlyn has been through. But, I think trans people, like ethnicities, are not really source material for a Halloween costume.

Spirit, I think that despite your intentions to “celebrate,” you’re ruining Halloween. Judging by the outfits you currently sell, I don’t think your Caitlyn costume will be respectful to her and I think you need to pull it from your racks.

What do you think, HollywoodLifers? Do you agree that Spirit Halloween should pull the costume? Leave your thoughts below.

— Jason Brow