Two LGBT groups condemned Amazon for selling a Caitlyn Jenner parody Halloween costume this week, with LGBT rights organization Stonewall encouraging Amazon to take it “off the shelves.”
The costume, based on Jenner’s career as an Olympic athlete in the 1970s, portrays pre-transgender Jenner with the addition of a long-haired wig to parody Jenner’s 2015 gender transition.
In a statement to Pink News, Jane Hamlin, the president of the Beaumont Society transgender organization declared, “I am astonished that a transphobic costume mocking Caitlyn Jenner is being marketed in the way it is. It is completely tasteless.”
“The transgender community has been getting quite a battering in the media recently because we would like to have autonomy over our own identities. We have become accustomed to insensitive mockery, but had hoped that cisgender people had become tired of such stunts and realized that it is not funny,” Hamlin continued. “No-one chooses to be trans. It is the way we are born, it is who we are… I am disappointed that anyone would want to sell this, and hope that no-one will want to buy it.”
LGBT rights group Stonewall also condemned the Halloween costume, with a spokesman proclaiming, “This is a reminder of how much is left to do to combat the abuse trans people face every day… This costume reduces a marginalized group to the butt of a joke. It should be taken off the shelves.”
Despite complaints, the costume is still listed for sale on Amazon in the U.S. as well as in the U.K.
This month, Hulu came under fire for telling its customers to wear “culturally appropriate” Halloween costumes this year which are “respectful to others.”
In 2016, several universities banned politically incorrect Halloween costumes, while last year, the University of Southern Indiana ran a workshop about culturally insensitive costumes.
“It is the taking of intellectual property, knowledge, and cultural expressions from someone else’s culture without asking permission,” declared one handout from the workshop, which listed Native American costumes as one example of cultural insensitivity at Halloween.
Actress and singer Hillary Duff was made to apologize two years ago after she dressed up as a pilgrim, with her boyfriend dressed as a Native American.
Other costumes which have faced criticism have included President Trump’s border wall, mariachi, “child terrorist,” and Disney’s Moana costume– which was described as “full-body brownface for kids.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.
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