Gender Bent Costumes

Part of the fun of Halloween is seeing everyone’s creativity blossom in the form of costumes. There’s so much you can do when dressing up for this holiday, it’s almost impossible to not find something fun to wear!

One type of costume I always find fun is gender-bent costumes (essentially, changing the gender expression of the costume by making it look more masculine or feminine, depending on the original character/costume it comes from.) It takes a certain aspect of creativity to take something feminine and adapt it into a more masculine aesthetic, and vice versa. Some people seem to have it down to an exact science, whereas if I want to do the same thing, I feel like a planning/shopping montage happens in my head to an overwhelming degree. Trust me, it’s scary.

Here are some examples of ones that I found online that I liked the most!

As you can see, there are varying degrees in which someone will masculinize something as a gender bent constume. The left and right pictures, gender bent versions of two iconic Disney princesses (Elsa and Ariel), incorporated many of the original feminine elements in it, but masculinized it just enough to show that they're doing a male version of each costume. However, the gender bent Black Widow in the middle appears highly masculinized, but still has recognizable elements of the original character. 

I think my favorite part about costumes like these is that it allows people to express gender identity in such a unique way. It’s cool to see because I feel like, on some level, it shows that they're comfortable enough with their gender identity to be able to dress as a character of a different gender, even if they're making the costume match their own identity a bit more. It's such a creative way to show an apprectation for a character, and quite a unique way to deliver a unique costume!

I’ve only ever done a gender bent costume once (I dressed as Jane from the hit 90’s MTV cartoon “Daria”) but I definitely enjoyed figuring out what I needed to do in order to make me look like the character, but in a more masculine form. And this year, I’m doing a gender bent version of Louise Belcher from Bob’s Burgers, so obviously the gender-bending train hauled me off into a world of blissful creativity. I ain't even mad about it.

But enough about me! What do you think of this trend? Have you done a genderbent costume before? Let's talk down in the comments!