Soapbox: Feminist Equality Colors Rant

Today in french class we were playing Hangman. Hangman is difficult in french, because every word basically ends with "e."
That is not what this rant is about.

If you didn't already know this, my French class is an online one, so the students comunicate mostly via chat box and microphone, and our teacher has a webcam. It's pretty cool.

One of the students, Monique I believe, (This is her "French class name." We all have one basically. Mine is Déesse.) was picking the word, so she got to use the whiteboard application thing to do it.

She drew the little hangman thing, and seven letter places. The first person guessed a letter, and she filled in a letter space in a different color. Then from the chat box  one of the boys said "Woah those are girly colors."
She was doing it in purple and teal.

It's not that I have a problem with being girly. Often people think feminists are man hating tomboys in pantsuits and tight buns. We aren't. I'm a multicolored haired, long skirt wearing, teenager with an awesome boyfriend. I only have a problem that he was using girly to describe colors.

People don't seem to get that colors are not inherently connected to a specific gender. Not purple, not pastell teal, not pink, not blue, not rainbow. None of the above.

I mentioned this, and somebody else* said that I was right, but pastell colors are calm and relaxing and welcoming. Like women I guess was the point he was trying to make.
Women aren't inherently calm and relaxing either. I mean, just look at me!

Of course I got kind of angry. I do that. I will freely admit that it pisses me off when color and gender based (or really anything based) stereotypes are called in as a good argument. But you know what's better to do than shouting angrily in all caps into a chat box? writing a reasonable blog post.

The issue kind of disappeared before the end of class, drifting away into the back of our minds. But it still bugs me, because this was something I've brought up before in class. I guess it's no wonder her word was "mauvais."

PDS, Lady E

* I would like to point out that not all the guys in my class were on the other side of the argument. I have mad respect for the guy who changed his chat color to bright pink after this conversation. Good on you, B.K.

(grabs soap box and megaphone) This is my feminist rant of the day

So today we went to Diddam's, (which is a party store chain that sells awesome halloween stuff) to buy the components of a dark angel costume for my preteen sister (and possibly a helm for me).
I was helping her shop, and thats when I ran into an aisle of costumes like this*:

Needless to say, I was horrified. Almost every women's costume in the entire store was by the same company, and looked more suited to strip clubs than trick or treating.

I am five foot seven, and a women's medium/large, and although I plan on making my own knight costume this year (it's gonna be really good), as my sister Jayne looked for black angel wings and a mask, I asked The Question.
The Question that is frowned upon (or at least considered prudish) in our modern society:

"Do you have any adult women's costumes that come below the knee?** Because I want to find something I can wear without shame as a teenager."

A woman in the next aisle over laughed and I heard her say "Not likely".
The guys I asked just sort of stuttered for a minute and then said something along the lines of, "Um.. Well... There's Spider-woman... and we have some... greek stuff?"

Needless to say, the Question made me a customer of intrest in the Diddam's , and one of the guys came over every few minutes asking if we were finding everything ok. (To his credit, he was a really nice guy, and actually said at one point, "I think whores probably wear more clothes than that, and would be ashamed to put that on")

We wandered about through the aisles, pointing out the costumes that were modest ("Hey look! You could be a nun... with a whip!"), and Jayne finally decided on a pair of dark blue shimmery wings and a little black mask. We paid and left.
That was it.

Nobody else in the store had seemed the slight bit disturbed by the costumes, or even the life size cardboard cutouts of small women with large breasts wearing them. Not even a tic.
I think that's the scariest thing of all this Halloween.

Lady Elisabeth

*I used this picture, because it's the Alice in Wonderland costume. I would like to remind you all, that in the stories by Lewis Carroll (who I'm certain would be more shocked than I, and probably more insulted), Alice Liddel was seven years old. This dress might fit a seven year old.

**Usually I would have added "and not slutty," but at that moment, I was willing to settle for just below the knee. Or even the ability to bend over.