With Halloween right around the corner, it’s only right that new and offensive costumes begin popping up on our social media feeds.
It’s no secret that people–and companies–find a way to ruin everything that is good and pure in this world but slutting it up and throwing a price tag on it. This year is no different. With the rise in popularity of the Hulu original series The Handmaid’s Tale, it was only a matter of time before a company tried cashing in on the conversation.
Lingerie and Halloween costume website Yandy has officially made one of the most tasteless and offensive costumes of the year with their “Brave Red Maiden” look. The outfit, which is clearly a slutty version of the handmaids in The Handmaid’s Tale is pretty much trash. And, it costs $64.95–a steep price for barely any fabric.
The show, and the novel, are both about a society in which women are used only for their bodies and nothing else. They re not allowed to have an opinion, brains, intelligence, careers, or a life. Both handmaids and wives are forbidden from even reading. So, you can see why I’m so deeply disturbed that someone would create a mock of their outfits by–you know–promoting a woman’s body when the show is about trying to give women a voice beyond their bodies.
People online have some thoughts about this absolute piece of garbage, too.
Slutty Handmaid Tale Costume was the natural progression of things pic.twitter.com/LuW9LiwK8X
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) September 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/kashanacauley/status/1042875934053986304
https://twitter.com/PrinceJvstin/status/1042877921113907200
https://twitter.com/YAWednesdays/status/1042968216635666432
Great description on this bad costume. ‘All women are sex slaves. However!!!' pic.twitter.com/Mt2B2rFwlL
— Katherine Krueger (@kath_krueger) September 20, 2018
Yes, this is what the handmaid's tale was missing – more leg https://t.co/7A6vI7Vpnd
— amy boo! doherty🎃 (@amyloudoherty) September 21, 2018
This Halloween costume is to Handmaids Tale what my 12th grade essay on Beowulf was to Beowulf pic.twitter.com/vlCQcZkwXE
— Annika H Rothstein (@truthandfiction) September 20, 2018
DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE I DID and check to see if this is real. It is, and now slutty Handmaid's Tale costume ads are following me around the Internet. I hate this timeline https://t.co/3LEBEwOKME
— Amanda Katz (@katzish) September 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/1042931440755781633
Come on society, do better. Please. Just…do better.
Updated 9/21: After Yandy received backlash on multiple platforms for the offensive costume, they have decided to remove the item from their site, saying:
“Our corporate ideology is rooted in female empowerment, and gender empowerment overall.”