Kmart Pulls Child Bride Halloween Costume After 507 People Sign Petition

Halloween feels minutes away and kids everywhere are making last minutes adjustments and changes to their costumes, which means moms everywhere are probably going a little bit bonkers trying to make the kid-friendly holiday go off without a hitch. From the ever-popular Marvel characters to Princess Anna and Wonder Woman, there will be plenty of superheroes and ghouls out about on Thursday night. But one costume, in particular, is causing quite a stir. Kmart is getting heat for selling a “child bride” costume and it has parents divided.

A woman called Shannon B. posted a petition on Change.org in which she gives a call to action to get Kmart to remove the “offensive” costume. Her petition, which has 507 signatures so far, reads “A child bride costume currently exists on Kmart shelves in children’s sizes. Tell Kmart this is beyond inappropriate and offensive and that they have a social responsibility to pull this item off their shelves immediately. Please help me get this message to Kmart by signing this petition.”

Shannon B. then gives some grim details about the issue of child brides.

“Each year, 12 million children (girls as young as 6 years old – the same size as this “costume”) are sold or married off by their family without their consent. That’s one million child marriages per month! That equates to 23 children every minute or 1 child every 2 minutes. If this continues, 150 million more children will be married by the year 2030,” Shannon B. wrote. “Child marriage means child abuse and torture in its worst forms – paedophilia, child rape, child slavery, child sex trafficking. Kmart -Take this child bride costume off your shelves.”

But, statistics and shocking facts about child sex trafficking aside, some people wonder why this costume is so offensive, to begin with given that it’s a Halloween costume for pretend play. After this petition showed up on Twitter, people took issue with the element of outrage culture over a cheap kid’s costume.

Ask Kmart to remove child bride costume from its shelves – Sign the Petition! https://t.co/2V4raCTcp3 via @ChangeAUS

— David Hill (@davidmhill) October 22, 2019

One person wrote pointed out that there really wasn’t a need for a petition.

I agree. There are far too many issues that warrant a petition…… a $9.99 children's Halloween costume is not one of them . Parents, just don't buy the thing if it bothers you so.

— Kathleen Herndon (@kk_herndon) October 24, 2019

But not everyone sees this issue as trivial. One woman pointed out the seriousness of the issue.

https://twitter.com/DollyMillerBre1/status/1187022647642771459

The comments go on and on and clearly there is a huge divide between those who say that Haloween is about letting kids pretend and that there is no need to get upset over costumes. While the other side points at how offensive some costumes such as the child bride costume are because they represent real-life horror for some people.

You tell us. Do you think the child bride costume is offensive or should kids be allowed to wear it this year for Halloween?