CC declines comment, but I didn't.

it's a class marker. non-elite women serve the "whore" function, it's how the elites define non-elites when not defining us "baby oven" or "handmaiden." elites can pay to have the real thing made, and it sets them apart, special. the semi-celebrity associated with the costume itself, and the social capital that creates, is reserved for elites. now, i don't define Con fans who do this as elite, as most of the time they do it themselves and it's almost an art these days, and surely a craft. but speaking simply as a status marker among the elite, it is on purpose that non-elite women rarely have access to the real costume, and frequently offered whore-esque "choices."

I'd like to start by saying i'm a longtime reader of graphic literature and speculative fiction of a wide range of genres.

The Patriarchy is hard at work here, employing a pretty wide range of tools here, tools which are literal pressures upon the shape of a woman, the way she shapes herself and is shaped.

A friend of mine and I often discuss how America is turning into the land of the sex worker, and this is another example supporting that. Uneasily last year, sis and I joked about it, looking for costumes for her and her family. "One things, for sure: there's no shortage of "sexy!" costumes for women. but not for men, oddly. sexy taxi driver, sexy pediatric ICU nurse, sexy mortician..." ha ha. or something. I suppose one could argue, "well, the original costumes would still get a woman killed instantly in Afghanistan, walking in it down the street." And that's one more pressure point upon women and girls to conform to an impossibly artificial shape. But anyway, my focus on the class/economic element to it is my primary focus. What's yours?

I think people who take the time to make their own as close to the original (and yet "original" in this case does not really mean "real," but nevermind) are pretty cool. It can be damn time consuming and expensive.

I think the "do" here is to not participate in this aspect of the consumer exercise that the holiday has become. One of CC's commentors said she was going with the neo-pagan version, that could be interpreted as a progressive "do" in a way.