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“Three weeks ago, I was threatened with arrest for presenting a petition with more than 14,000 signatures on it to a Halloween-costume maker. Yandy, a Phoenix, Arizona-based lingerie distributor, sells around 40 different styles of Native American-themed costumes. Most of them are for women, and most are sexualized.
It’s past time to speak up about America’s unwillingness to address the racism and discrimination directed at Indigenous people, particularly women.
In September, Yandy bowed to criticism over its “sexy” Handmaid’s Tale costume — a mini-skirted version of the outfits worn by the surrogate sex slaves in the hit Hulu show — and removed the item from its website. It took only a few hours for online outrage to force the company to pull the costume and issue an apology. “It has become obvious that our ‘Yandy Brave Red Maiden Costume’ is being seen as a symbol of women’s oppression, rather than an expression of women’s empowerment,” the company wrote in a statement. “This is unfortunate, as it was not our intention on any level.”
And yet the company continues to sell costumes that disparage Native women and reduce us to sexual objects, despite protests from Indigenous communities nationwide. A company spokesperson tried to justify this, telling the Phoenix New Times that “the costumes are influenced by powerful fashion elements derived from the culture and are intended to pay homage to the Native American community, not to mock or offend.””
– High Country News, Stop selling costumes that sexualize Indigenous women.
“They say Yandy, and outfitters like Party City and Spirit Halloween, sell costumes that sexually objectify indigenous women. In fact, Yandy has an entire collection of ensembles described as “sexy Indian” or “sexy Pocahontas” looks. Also known as “Pocahottie” costumes, these getups are a stereotypical and provocative take on Native dress. With fringe and feathers, the frocks are hiked up to the thighs, low-cut, or belly-baring.
The ensembles disregard not only the struggles of indigenous women historically but also the fact that today, Native American women experience high rates of sexual assault, often perpetrated by non-Native men. Outraged that Yandy pulled a costume linked to the oppression of fictional white women while ignoring Native women’s very real oppression, more than 8,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Yandy to remove its “sexy Indian” collection.
The hashtag #CancelYandy is circulating on Twitter, and a small group of protesters recently demonstrated outside Yandy’s corporate office in Phoenix. These efforts aren’t new. Native American scholars, organizations, and individuals have described these costumes as harmful for years.”
– Vox, These costumes objectify Native American women. Retailers won’t stop selling them..
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #43 – Sexualized Costumes (Yandy).
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
