'Caitlyn' costume panned in Twitter outcry

Maria Puente | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption "Call Me Caitlyn" costume sparks outrage "Call Me Caitlyn" costume sparks outrage on social media sites and in the LGBT community.

The nasty/edgy jokes never stop when it comes to Caitlyn Jenner.

A gag "Call Me Caitlyn" Halloween costume, based on her lingerie-clad Vanity Fair cover, has sparked a backlash of outrage on Twitter about "transphobia."

Nevertheless, the retailer says it's still going ahead with sales, and even provided an updated picture of its "Caitlyn Corset."

A smaller, counter-backlash of outrage at the outrage also cropped up from tweeters who protested it was "just a joke."

The outrage tally against the costume won the day Tuesday, but the costume retailer, Spirit Halloween, isn't backing down: It's going ahead with plans to sell the costume in its stores and online by the end of September, according to marketing director Lisa Barr.

The $74.99 getup — wig, padded bustier, shorts and a sash saying "Call Me Caitlyn" — was nowhere to be found Tuesday on the Spirit Halloween website, where the slogan is, "So much fun it's scary!"

However, the same costume is still available on the AnytimeCostumes.com and at WholesaleHalloweenCostumes.com, where it's only $49.95.

Barr defends the costume as a "celebration" of Jenner.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based on celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes. Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and our Caitlyn-inspired costume reflects just that," she said in a statement.

But the costume designers at Spirit Halloween may have been a little spooked by the outpouring of 140-character scorn heaped on the Jenner costume since last week. There were even threats of violence.

Tweeters called for boycotts and urged protesters to sign petitions.

And not just on Twitter; spokespeople for transgender people condemned the costume as unfunny, contemptuous and mean.

"There's no tasteful way to 'celebrate' Caitlyn Jenner or respect transgender people this way on the one night of the year when people use their most twisted imaginations to pretend to be villains and monsters," said Vincent Villano, spokesman for the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington.

The people at GLAAD, which monitors gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans images in the media, weren't happy either.

"When transgender women step out into the world as their authentic selves, they aren't wearing a costume," said a spokesman, Nick Adams. "Companies should think twice before seeking to profit from mocking trans women."

Meanwhile, the people who oppose trans people in general, and Jenner in particular, used the controversy to heap scorn on the former Bruce Jenner, whom they still refer to as "Bruce."

"The 'transgendered' must always be shown as brave, bold, heroic, and beautiful, and never as hideous, freakish, or a source of mental illness, as that would hit too close to the mark," sneered the right-wing online publication The American Thinker, which headlined its blog post on the matter last week, "Irony alert: Liberals furious over Bruce Jenner Halloween costumes".

Just for context, practically every year there are mini-controversies over Halloween costumes in questionable taste. For instance, the Miley Cyrus/Robin Thicke twerking episode at the VMA awards in 2013 produced Halloween costumes that year, including her foam finger, that raised eyebrows.





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