Anna Rexia Halloween Costume Sparks Outrage

Halloween is just around the corner and that can only mean one thing: Offensive Halloween costumes. A Change.org petition was recently started in protest of the “Anna Rexia” costume.

If the “Anna Rexia” costume sounds familiar, it’s because the same outfit was at the center of a controversy in 2011. The costume was pulled from websites like HalloweenStore.com, but it is now making a resurgence in 2013.

The costume retails for $39.99 at HalloweenParty13.com and features a dangerously skinny skeleton.

The petition, which cites several scary statistics about the dangers of Anorexia, asks HalloweenParty13.com to remove the costume from its site.

HalloweenParty13.com hasn’t responded to the petition yet, but Halloween Store, another store that has sold the product, responded today on Facebook. Halloween Store said that it did not design the costume and that it is not encouraging eating disorders by selling the costume.

The company writes on Facebook: “We did NOT design, manufacture, etc this costume. We are a small family business that sold this costume, just as thousands of other stores did.”

Hypervocal reports that Dreamgirls International is the company that created Anna Rexia. In 2011, the company said that it understood the controversy behind the costume, but added that adults should be able to make their own choice about what to wear.

Dreamgirls said in a previous statement: “We understand that some people will not find the dark humor funny… Halloween is an eccentric and irreverent holiday for people to express themselves in a myriad of ways. While some people may not like a particular costume, it is a matter of taste and personal discretion.”

The company has since discontinued the product. Still, the idea of Anna Rexia is alive and well and the costume is still creating controversy.

Dreamgirls Director of Marketing Lar Hovsepian, said: “At this point it’s out of our control.”