Mom’s Open Facebook Letter To Party City Over Sexy Cop Costumes For Little Girls Goes Viral

Lin Kramer likely thought she was simply blowing off steam when she penned an open letter to Party City on Facebook about their Halloween costume offerings for girls versus boys. Now that her post about Halloween costumes has gone viral, Kramer has opened an interesting discussion about career costume choices for boys versus girls. Lin also noted how differently the choice between Party City’s little boy cop costume looked in comparison to the trollop type of “sassy” fare offer for little girls.

As reported by Today, Lin wanted a costume for her 3-year-old daughter. With limited career choices for the girls, Party City’s “sassy” cop costume, with a short skirt and black stockings looked nothing like the real outfits that female cops wear.

The Toddler Girls Cop Costume on Party City is called sassy and sweet. After searching the Party City website for costume choices for her daughter, Lin wrote that she was hopeful that Party City would reconsider their Halloween costumes and old fashioned views when it came to the career offerings for little girls.

“As you can see, the classic costumes for boys include 53 assorted options, ranging from traditional vampire attire to a ‘rascal pirate’ to 16 costumes relating to possible occupations. Meanwhile, the classic costumes for girls include 45 options, ranging from a ‘vampire queen’ to a ‘precious pirate’ to three costumes relating to possible occupations.”

From cheerleaders to cowgirls, Party City offered an array of costumes that were career-oriented — but Lin surmised that while 30 percent of the boy costumes are career-based, only 7 percent of girl costumes are career based. It’s for reasons like this that retailers are becoming more aware of the types of toys that they market to girls versus boys. In order to avoid angering consumers as such, gender neutral toys are coming to the forefront, as reported by the New York Times.

Lin wrote that Party City initially commented on her post that she’d posted to Facebook, but then Party City deleted their comment and blocked Lin as the feedback went viral.

Of course, someone was able to print a screenshot as proof. In the open letter, Kramer challenged Party City to look at real female cops in society and ask themselves if women in authority really dress that way. The costume for the little girl was called a “cute cop” outfit while Party City used strong words to describe the boy’s cop costume. While the girl’s costume was called “sassy and sweet,” the boy cop costume was deemed a “realistic scaled-down police shirt” for “this protector of the peace [who] has it all under control!”

Lin was appalled that little girls could get the notion that they could grow up to be a “sexy cop.” Kramer also noted that lots of the costumes found under the boys’ costume section could work as unisex outfits. She challenged Party City to view women like Ronda Rousey and Danica Patrick, who are shaking up the game and proving that women have muscles and strong athleticism and race car driving ambitions, too.

While some commented that Lin was being too sensitive in her criticisms of Party City, and wrote that the store could sell whatever they wanted, others are grateful for the viral Facebook letter. Indeed, after getting such a viral response online, Party City just might end up changing their Halloween costume line-up and website offerings in time for October 31. Perhaps instead of deleting Kramer’s post, Party City might heed her advice, and thank the thinking mom for performing a bit of marketing research that could actually ended up bringing Party City more sales of costumes in the long run.

[Images via Lin Kramer Facebook/Party City]