I’m Batmannnn!!!

Carolyn’s Team Pick:

People — and by “people” I mean “right wing media, and those who watch them” — tend to get very uncomfortable when talking about children and gender. This is especially true when talking about boys dressing up as girls for Halloween, which is tied to how culture undervalues femininity.

Luckily, no one gets upset when girls dress up as Batman, because: it’s Batman, how could you be upset? Unless an eight year old dressing up as Batman in your immediate vicinity ran around chanting, “I’m Batmannnnn!” and jumping from the third step of every staircase, wings spread, which was by no means how I spent my childhood.

Superheroes Are For Girls, Too is an adorable tumblr that aims to celebrate such moments. Some of the photos are depressing, because the kid’s parents are clearly doing the six-year-old-appropriate version of wearing a dress (tutu) and one costume element (Superman crest) and pretending you’re dressed up. But most of them give me hope for the world. From the site:

Superheroes aren’t just for little boys. Here you’ll find lots of images of little girls from past and present who also love them. You may submit pictures you’ve taken or pictures of you or a relative. No pictures randomly pulled off the net, please. Girls dressed as superheroes, meeting superheroes, reading superheroes comics are all welcome.

Via girlslovesuperheroes.tumblr.com.

You’re welcome.

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Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates was the NSFW Editor (2013–2018) and Literary Editor for Autostraddle.com, with bylines in Nylon, Refinery29, The Toast, Bitch, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. They live in Los Angeles and also on twitter and instagram.

Ryan has written 1142 articles for us.

16 Comments

  4. Niiice! I distinctly remember making a batman costume one Halloween. I glued wine corks to a black belt to make my utility belt. Totally beat my hastily made floral ghost costume from previous years.

  5. Squee! I think I need to go update my profile to change my favorite thing on Autostraddle from “100 pictures of Shane” to “posts that talk about clothes that a) fit me and b) I would want to wear” and “new adorable/awesome tumblrs to follow!”

  6. I remember when my mom was doubtful about letting me dress as Batman for a costume party and my grandma convinced her it was no big deal.I was 6.
    Thanks Grandma, I miss you

  7. Even better would be little Susie dressing up as the BATWOMAN. Cross-dressing as male superheroes is SO passe–watch people’s heads explode when they realize your little girl is supposed to be a lesbian superhero for Halloween! :)

  8. My best friend and I are planning on dressing up for next year’s Fan Expo in Toronto. She’s going as punk Supergirl, and I’m going as punk Batgirl. I’ve already got my eye on a pair of bright yellow Doc Martens on Ebay…

  9. I’m going as my personal superhero this Halloween: The Doctor.

    I wish I had gone as Batman as a kid though. :(

  11. This is so relevant to my interests. I was definitely Bat Girl for Halloween 3 years in a row. Then the next year I was cat woman because the ear hat still fit even though the rest of the costume was too small.

    Also relevant: Today in child development we got to see a wall of children’s drawings of super heroes. There were two drawings by girls out of about 30 drawings total. They were “Ladybug Girl” and “Super Girl”…Super Girl’s power was party decorating. I wish I was kidding.

  12. One of my coworkers has two young daughters. One of them is all girly, and the other is this complete and total tomboy. She wears this adorable little Spider-Man watch, Batman t-shirts, Ninja Turtles t-shirts, etc. I’m pretty sure that last year, she may have dressed up as a super hero for Halloween. And they are totally fine with whatever she wants to wear, which just warms my icy heart to no end. That little tomboy is my favorite 4-year-old ever.

  13. Those are my girls! We don’t really look at gender when we look at costumes – I let them go with whatever they’re into. That was my oldest’s second year in a row being The Joker, and the little one had been Cinderella. This year they were going to be The Bride of Frankenstein and Batwoman, but last week I bought them sonic screwdrivers and now they want to go as Ten and Eleven. I’ll be Martha Jones. :)

    I love that Tumblr; thanks for including their photo, and I’m not sure if links are allowed in comments, but there are a few more photos of them in their costumes here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsyoung/sets/72157625269691510/

  14. These kids are the bomb. So cute!!!

    I remember when I begged and begged for a Wonder Woman costume when I was a little kid, and the costume they got for me looked nothing like her. It was a mask of Wonder Woman’s face, but the costume was a paper jumpsuit with a picture of Wonder Woman on it. So dumb. I wanted a real costume, but my parents didn’t understand.

    So the parents of these kids deserve some applause.

  15. I just took my four year old to her first comic convention, and she dressed in her awesome homemade Black Canary costume. She and her little brother Batman spent most of the day practicing “super poses”. I’m totally showing them this in the morning.

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