1. The Princess Boy
By: Danielle Leckner

2. Audience
The audience that I am trying to
communicate with is parents who have
children, people who are expecting, and the
younger generation.

3. Purpose
The purpose of this text-based project is to
open the minds of the reader and allow them to
change their ideas of gender specific
Halloween costumes. Allowing for individuals to
wear whatever they want on this specific day
and not be judged for it in the long run.

4. Halloween
October 31st is the eve of the Western
Christian feast of All Hallows.
Halloween was originally promoted as a
children’s holiday, and as a means of
reining in the wicked and destructive
behaviors of teenagers
Typical festive Halloween activities include
trick-or-treating, attending costume
parties, carving pumpkins, lighting bonfires,
apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions,
playing pranks and dressing up to be
something you are not for a night.
http://simplisafe.com/files/images/blog/home_security_halloween_safety.jpg

5. Playing Dress up
Halloween costumes are traditionally modeled after supernatural
figures. Anywhere from monsters, ghosts, skeletons and witches.
Over time, the selection of costumes have extended to popular
characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes, such as
a pretty princess to a crime fighting ninja.
Early Halloween costumes were aimed at children in particular, but
after the mid-20th century, Halloween became increasing
celebrated by adults. Now the costumes are being worn by adults
as much as children.

6. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/regina-george?before=1319987576
Todays standards
Today, Halloween standards is quoted greatly by “Mean girls.” Teenage-
Adult aged females take Halloween as an excuse to dress up as “slutty”
and to not be judged for doing so.

7. But what if a male dressed as a Female?
It may be funny if you see a
male dressed in a female
costume for halloween.
Guys will think it is funny and
make fun of big names or big
stereo types, just to get a
laugh out of their friends
http://www.wtfcostumes.com/costumes/man-wonder-woman-costume.jpg

8. The overall question for this
presentation is....

9. How would you feel if
you saw a little boy
dressed up in a
“female-gender
specific” costume for
Halloween?

10. Not a new concept?
There may be some of you asking yourself, why
would anyone let a little boy dress up as in a
“girl” costume for Halloween?
Others will not have any second thought to let a
boy dress up as a “girl inspired” costume.
Now... What would you do if Your own child
wanted to dress as a girl for Halloween?

11. Generally Little girls dress up as:
Princess
Witches
Cartoon character from TV
“Cute” bugs (lady bug, bumble bee, ect)

12. http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll300/A19V_1_20120823_2817010
http://blog.costumesupercenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/princess.jpg
http://s7.orientaltrading.com/is/image/OrientalTrading/mc2085?$VIEWER_IMAGE$
http://www.spirithalloween.com

13. Generally little boys dress up as:
Super heros
Cowboy/indian
Vampire/skeleton
Police officer/ firemen

14. http://s7d4.scene7.com/is/image/CostumeSup
http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2012/10/boys-dracula-costume.jpg
http://www.simpleholidayideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/cowboy-costume.jpg
http://s7d4.scene7.com/is/image/CostumeSupercenter/FW1527?$medium

15. Internet explosion!
The internet has been exploding with the idea
of allowing little boys to dress up in a “gender
specific female costume.”
If a parent did allow their child to go to a
classroom dressed up as a girl, how would the
child react? More importantly how would the
parents react?

16. She made the news!
A mother’s decision to allow her 5-year-old son
to dress up as a female cartoon character for a
preschool Halloween party has lit up the
blogospher.
This blog topic has received negative reaction
and disapproving looks from other parents and
have received over 3 million page views and
over tens of thousands comments.

17. 5 year old dresses as Daphne for
halloween
Right from the start of the
blog, Sarah (the mother of
the child) says, “My son is
gay, or he’s not. I don’t
care. He is still my son.
And he is 5. And I am his
mother. And if you have a
problem with anything
mentioned above, I don’t
want to know you.”
These are some very
aggressive words on a
very touchy topic
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/52914794.html

18. “Boo”, her child, decided he wanted to be
Daphne from Scooby Doo a few weeks before
Halloween. She was hesitant to make the
purchase, not because it was a gendered
situation, but because 5 year olds have a
tendency to change their minds. After he
requested a couple more times, she ordered
the costume. Boo was very excited to wear his
lovely new costume.

19. On the actual day, Boo was afraid to show off
his new costume. He was afraid of what
people would say and/or do to him. Sarah
reassured him that he would be fine.
Boo’s friends never once said a hurtful word to
him, they only played and enjoyed their
Halloween festivities; it was the parents in the
room who made a big scene....

20. One mom had the nerve to walk up to Sarah,
and let her know her thoughts on the situation.
She felt that Sarah should never have ‘allowed’
this, and thank God it wasn’t next year when he
was in kindergarten since she would have had
to put her foot down and ‘forbidden’ it.
Sarah’s only thoughts were, “It is Halloween,
people get to dress up as what you are not. It’s
a fun holiday.”

21. •
Sarah’s Blog has currently been taken off of the
internet due to the massive amounts of
responses whether it be good or bad. I am
sorry that I can not share the blog with you at
this point in time.
•
If you are still interested in the story, here is
Sarah’s website:
http://nerdyapple.com/aboutme/

22. Another story has blown
up the internet...

23. “My princess Boy”
The Kilodavis family has shared the same
experience as Sarah and “Boo.”
The Kilodavis’s son Dyson began wearing
sparkly and colorful dresses in preschool and
still does at age 5.

24. Dyson
Kilodavis says that
while it is important
to understand why
children cross
dress, it is also
important that they
are happy and
know that they are
loved however
they dress

25. Cheryl, Dyson’s mother, said that one day
when she picked up Dyson from preschool he
was dressed in a sparkly dress.
She ran straight to the store and got him “Male
specific” costumes to play dress up in to make
sure he that he was not confused on how to
play dress up as a male.
But the next day she picked him up from
preschool wearing a yellow dress, as happy as
can be.

26. She said, “The discussion is, what is going to
make this more accepted? We have children
who are expressing themselves differently, and
we need to get a place of acceptance”

27. Self Published book
So, Kilodavis self
published a book
on what her son
and her family
went through while
trying to
understand his
clothes.

28. The book’s description
My Princess Boy is a nonfiction picture book about acceptance. With
words and illustrations even the youngest of children can understand.
My Princess Boy tells the tale of 4-year-old boy who happily expresses
his authentic self by happily dressing up in dresses, and enjoying
traditional girl things such as jewelry and anything pink or sparkly. The
book is from a mom's point of view, sharing both good and bad
observations and experiences with friends and family, at school, and in
shopping stores. My Princess Boy opens a dialogue about embracing
uniqueness, and teaches the reader how to accept young boys who
might cross traditional gender line clothing expectations. The book
ends with the understanding that 'my' Princess Boy is really 'our'
Princess Boy, and as a community, we can accept and support youth
for whoever they are and however they wish to look.
http://www.amazon.com/Princess-story-about-young-loves/dp/0615395945

29. After-math
•
After doing research on the topic, I wanted to
ask the people closest to me how they truly felt
about a little boy dressing up in a female
costume.

30. What does the population
say?
After taking a survey of what people who are
near and dear to me thought about this topic,
I was shocked.
The question I asked was: How would you
react if your little boy told you he wanted to
wear a “gender specific female” costume for
Halloween? Would you be:
A) Appalled and try to change their mind
B) Be wary but supportive
C) Fully Supportive

31. Results
The results came back with an extremely high
vote for A) Appalled and try to change their
minds.
More than few people voted for B, but the very
few voted for C.
It is just surprising to me that after getting 26
votes only 5 people said they would fully
support their own child.

33. In the end
In the end, it is every parents decision to allow
what their child will to wear on Halloween; but I
truly hope that this has impacted someone in
away to rethink that it IS ok to allow a child to be
a little different.
Every child should be able to express
themselves in their own ways, if that be on
Halloween or on a daily basis.