On girls

Here's an interesting opinion piece from the NY Times about tween girls. Interesting in that Minks and I have had many conversations around Halloween about what is an appropriate costume. I've always shared the theory that for many close-to-middle-aged women, Halloween is a great excuse to dress up as a Crack Whore (and I posted Joel Stein's piece on Sluttyween on my Facebook page). I have to admit to owning a completely hideous pair of platform pink plastic thigh boots which I used to whip out every year with my black mini. I'm not really sure what message this sent because I'm not entirely sure if the irony was evident to a then nine year old. Certainly my outfit seems tame in comparison to some of the Mommies we saw on Wednesday night and I was a little taken aback by Kate Beckinsale's choice of rubber jumpsuit, red laced corset and matching mini-shorts, and full she-devil regalia (think dominatrix meets luciferina by way of riding teacher). She held her little daughter's hand rather sweetly as she tottered from house to house trick or treating. The good news is that Minks was most turned off by a friend's choice of a "Slutty Baseball Player in High Heels" costume and chose, instead to be a very sweet, somewhat childlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (in fact, she asked her teachers to call her "Raphael" in class and dear souls that they are, they went along with it). I digress madly. But do read this.