But this time, it's less about
sexualization than gender equality.
As a disclaimer, I'm not too familiar with the show
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, but I have a passing familiarity with the characters, as I do know somebody who watches it and loves it. The main protagonists are a girl/boy duo whose superhero identities are Ladybug and Cat Noir. I also understand that there is a canonical gender swap version of the characters named
Mister Bug and
Lady Noir. So when I was browsing the Halloween store, looking at all the fun costumes - which is something I enjoy doing every year in the fall - I noticed something about the kids' costumes available in the Miraculous section. The Cat Noir costume featured both a boy and a girl dressed up on the packaging, but the Ladybug costume featured only a girl. There was, additionally, a separate "Lady Noir" costume for girls, but no corresponding "Mister Bug" costume for boys that I could find.
Obviously, there's no real need to have separate costumes for the different sexes in this case, as the gender swapped versions of the outfits do not appear to be substantially different. There's nothing stopping a boy from buying and wearing a Ladybug costume, just as there is nothing stopping a girl from buying and wearing a Cat Noir costume. But I think the fact that there is a girl wearing the Cat Noir costume on its packaging, given equal billing to the boy also depicted wearing the costume, but there is no equivalent boy wearing the Ladybug costume on
its packaging, is revealing of the gender stereotypes we continue to live with. Namely, that it's okay - admirable, even - for a girl to imitate a boy, but that it's still taboo (and puts a target on your back for harassment) for a boy to imitate a girl. This is what we have feminism to thank for?
Now, it could be argued that Cat Noir's costume is already somewhat feminized - as men do not typically dress in tight spandex, and there is, on the other hand, certainly a precedent for women dressed in tight black leather outfits (see: Catwoman). I wouldn't disagree with that, and I think that's a point in the show's favor. But the way these costumes are being marketed is saying something rather different.
Another point you could possibly make is that Miraculous is a show that appeals more to girls (I don't have any statistics to back up this claim, but it wouldn't surprise me if this were the case), and therefore the costumes are going to be more heavily marketed to girls* - with the girl in the Cat Noir costume acting as if to say, "yeah, this is a boy character on the show, but you can still wear this costume, girls!" Moreso considering that, of the three or four different Miraculous characters I saw costumes for, this was the
only one that's a boy. But even so, what do you think this kind of media messaging does to the boys who are out there that watch Miraculous and idolize Ladybug and want to dress up as her for Halloween? They probably won't, because they're justifiably terrified of being teased by peers and siblings - and adults who should really know better but don't, because this is the culture we live in. The fact is, it's not unheard of for boys to like shows marketed to girls. I say that as a person who secretly watched Sailor Moon as a teen.
*Allow me to add a counterpoint to this point. It occurs to me that I may not have given this point sufficient weight, as, to be fair, I
did find the Miraculous section located among the girls' department. So it would make sense for a girl to appear in the Cat Noir costume, but not for a boy to appear in the Ladybug costume, if these costumes are indeed being marketed predominantly to girls. However, in my defense, I would challenge you to find a different show that appeals to boys, and locate a costume for a girl character in that show that is still being marketed to boys, and shows not just a girl but also a boy wearing that same costume on the package. I would be very surprised to find such a thing; indeed, a survey of the boys' department reveals nothing of the kind. Of course, you could say that this is to be expected, as it's far more common for girls to be comfortable dressing like boys than the reverse - but that's exactly my point.
What I
did notice was that the kids' costumes were much more segregated by sex, with girl costumes and boy costumes separated, while the "adult" department mixed in women's and men's costumes liberally, sorted mainly by theme. There are also a lot of "feminized" versions of male (or gender neutral*) costumes, and few (if any) male versions of traditionally female costumes. Imagine, for example, a Red Riding Hood, Harley Quinn, or Wonder Woman costume marketed to men. And don't say that there
are male versions if you're only thinking of the character's
analogue (e.g., witch vs. warlock, priest vs. nun). The fact is, feminized versions of Wolf, Joker, and Superman (does the world need both Supergirl
and Wonder Woman, more than it needs a Wonder Man?) costumes exist - indeed, this phenomenon is so common as to be expected, while you almost never see the female
analogues marketed to men. A woman might dress as Peter Pan without a second thought, but can you even
imagine a man donning a Tinkerbell costume for any other purpose than self-effacing humor? (Other than me, of course - on that note, I think I might know what my costume for next year is going to be).
*Consider how weird it would be if we had not just "sexy", feminized versions of otherwise gender neutral (or traditionally male, as that's defined as the "default" in our culture) costumes, but also hyper-masculinized versions. So, in addition to "clown" there would not just be "sexy clown" but also "buff clown". The pirate section would add not just "sassy pirate" but also "burly pirate". We'd have not just skeletons in tulle skirts, but (ironically) ones in muscle shirts, too. I wouldn't be opposed to any of this - and indeed, I take much pleasure in the existence of feminized costumes. I just can't help noticing the asymmetry, and associating it with the disparity I perceive between the different levels of discrimination men versus women experience when crossing conventional gender lines.
Well, that's one of the reasons I'm proud to dress like a girl and appear in public doing so. And I'm happy to say that attitudes over the past decade seem to be improving. I get a lot more compliments (including from the woman working the register at the store where I took the picture above, who liked the dress I was wearing at the time), and a lot less confusion - even from little kids - now that "transgender" is more of a household term. That's what I call progress. And if there are pockets of conservatives fighting back real hard right now, that's only because we're making headway, and
they're the ones who are terrified for a change. Let's keep it that way.
And if I were more familiar with Miraculous, I'd happily dress in a Ladybug costume to show other boys that it's okay (and I certainly wouldn't scoff at the chance to dress up in tight black leather, even - or especially - if it were a Catwoman costume instead of Cat Noir). Instead, for the past couple of Halloweens, I've been wearing costumes of feminized versions of male characters from horror movies - namely, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. I could easily have worn the male version of the costume if I wanted to, but I deliberately picked the female version because that's what I like to wear. And that's perfectly okay. In fact, it's better than okay. It's
great! Life's too short to let peer pressure get in the way of the pursuit of happiness. Especially for those of us who are living in what is [sometimes dubiously] called "the free world".
