'Call Me Caitlyn' Costume Sparks Outrage, But Some Insist It's All In Good Fun
HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA.com) — Caitlyn Jenner has been making headlines for months, and now a costume based on her likeness is doing the same.
"I thought it's a perfect costume," said Derek Rogers, the manager and buyer at Hollywood Toys & Costumes, which is eagerly awaiting its shipment of the Jenner costume. He insists the costume is all in good fun.
"They imitate the president. They do Michael Jackson. It's all, anybody, anybody's fair game," he said.
Several online retailers are selling the costume, which comes with a padded corset, wig and pageant sash.
One of those websites promises "You'll be sure to get a few good laughs out of your friends and other guests at the get together."
"Any parody, especially this one of Caitlyn Jenner, opens the door for bullies and bigots to mock with impunity," said Alex Schmider of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Schmider is transgender and a local LGBT advocate. He says this costume goes too far.
"If I had seen a woman in that costume sort of celebrating Caitlyn Jenner as a hero, that would have felt different to me than the man that was in the costume feeling like it was making a mockery of her," Schmider said.
A change.org petition has been created to ask retailer, Spirit Halloween, to pull the costume. It has over 4,000 signatures.
The costume is also a hot topic on social media.
One Twitter user wrote: "The Caitlyn Jenner Halloween costumes are disgusting. Being trans isn't a 'costume' and treating it as such is ignorant & transphobic."
But another person scoffed at the controversy, tweeting: "Mass outcry over Caitlyn Jenner Halloween costume but nothing about the ongoing Indian Chief, Mexican mariachi, Geisha or other costumes."
Jenner has yet to comment on the costume controversy.
