We’ve seen huge, detailed costumes, straight-out-of-the-Party-City-bag costumes, handmade costumes, and that one “This is My Halloween Costume” shirt throughout our collective Halloween experiences. But every year, there are people who derail Halloween’s lighthearted mood and make us wish we’d stayed inside and stuffed ourselves with candy instead— people who think they’re being clever or purposely offensive to get a cheap laugh. Here are some costumes that should have never seen the light of the jack-o-lantern.
1. “Anna-Rexia”
Advertised with the tagline, “You can never be too rich or too thin,” this costume outraged Halloween shoppers in 2011. It was eventually pulled off the shelves after making headlines for belittling eating disorders, and rightfully so! Eating disorders shouldn’t be portrayed as something cute or sexy when almost 30 million Americans currently suffer from them.
2. Caitlyn Jenner Costume
This costume started getting slammed months before we even hit October. When several Halloween stores began offering Caitlyn Jenner costumes for men, people took to Twitter to protest the connotations of having a costume of a transgender person. “Mocking the transgender community is degrading, disrespectful, and harmful. We are humans, not jokes,” read one tweet by Marni Panas. Many agreed that the costume was transphobic, especially since it’s being touted as a men’s costume. While the stores selling the costume have defended themselves by saying they “make fun of everyone” and it’s all for the “spirit of Halloween,” they are directly mocking Caitlyn’s transition and making light of the struggles trans people go through in having their experience seen as legitimate.
3. Ray Rice
After Ray Rice from the Baltimore Ravens was suspended for a video where he was seen beating and dragging his wife across the floor, many thought it’d be a great idea to don his jersey and drag mannequins, dolls or even actual women around for their Halloween costume that year. This one is a triple threat— misogyny, black face and, making fun of domestic abuse all in one terrible idea. Talk about worst couple costume of the year. Needless to say, people were outraged. Janay Rice, Ray Rice’s wife, spoke during the controversy and gave us a short but powerful reason why this costume should have never happened: “It’s sad, that my suffering amuses others.”
4. Kid Terrorist
There are a lot of terrible parents responsible for the photos in this list, apparently. If dressing up like a terrorist or suicide bomber isn’t bad enough, letting “ISIS member” be your kid’s Halloween costume is unimaginably worse. What happened to being Superman, a ninja, or just a plain old ghost? Mocking the death of millions by terrorist attack is not what you want to be caught doing on Halloween. Someone should eat all of this kid’s candy.
5. School Shooting Victim
Making light of tragic death and violence seems to be a trend among terrible Halloween celebrators. When school shootings are becoming terrifyingly common in the U.S., no one wants to see a mockery of the victims. Halloween can be bloody and scary, but should be fun at its core. Bloodying up school merch with fake blood and bullet holes should not be anyone’s idea of a fun Halloween costume; really, not making fun of real life tragedy should be a rule of thumb when you’re thinking up ideas for your costume this year.