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Halloween 2.0?

Backlash over revealing Purim costumes

by
Stephanie Butnick
February 07, 2012
Yun Yulia/Shutterstock
Someone else's cat costume.Yun Yulia/Shutterstock
Yun Yulia/Shutterstock
Someone else's cat costume.Yun Yulia/Shutterstock

Purim, it seems, has become the new Halloween. The World International Zionist Organization has called for parents to boycott companies that sell revealing costumes marketed to young people, specifically naming Shoshi Zohar, a retailer whose 2012 Purim catalog, the Jerusalem Post reports, was deemed inappropriate:

It features 23 colorful pages of costumes for babies, young children and teenagers and seven pages of adult costumes. Of the adult costumes, the majority display various professions, animals or television characters and almost all include fishnet stockings, microscopic skirts and revealing tops.

One of the costumes, described in the catalogue as a “sexy cat,” includes a bondage mask and whip, while the “sexy policewoman” includes a latex bodice and handcuffs.

Zohar argued that her costumes offer options for both religious and secular buyers, but it doesn’t look like WIZO is buying it.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.