Trick-or-treating — or turning tricks?
Trashy Halloween kiddie costumes — from a slutty thigh- and chest- baring “French maid” number to a skin- tight, mid- thigh “Major Trouble” skirt-and- shirt fatigues set — have parents fuming.
“If girls get used to dressing like this, they might want to become a whore after Halloween,” howled Harlem mom Malinda Martinez, 33, who has a 6-year-old girl.
“They’re far too grown up for kids.”
The marketing message is even more blatantly sexual. “The Navy ships won’t want to leave the dock unless this cute sailor girl is on board,” reads one catalog entry for a teeny-weeny sailor costume in sizes that can fit a 4-year-old and sold by West 14th Street store Party City.
“It is so wrong,” said Sharon Lamb, author of the book “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers’ Schemes.”
“The message being put out there is that it’s right to be slutty on Halloween. That’s what Halloween is all about now. The one night when it’s OK to live your fantasies, marketers are telling children their fanta sies should involve sex. It is very damag ing.”
A reporter found a slew of slutty Hal loween costumes for kids at a Party City outlet on East Fourth Street, including:
* A Goldilocks get-up suitable for a Penthouse party: clingy gingham lace-up peasant dress with a white petticoat “that’s all grown up, and you can have your porridge and more.”
* A pirate costume dubbed the “High Seas Hottie” — made in sizes to fit an 8-year-old.
* A women-in-chains fantasy costume called “Convict Cutie” that features a spandex dress and lace-up bodice.
* A “Devil Grrrl” costume for 10- to 14-year-olds that in cludes a flaming-red dress and tail, skanky fishnet hose and gloves and a tiny pitchfork. “This grrrl devil likes to get things heating up!” the packaging boasts.
A Party City manager booted a reporter who asked about the trashy costumes.