Purim Costumes and the Commodification of Gender

What is it about?

In the study on which this article is based, I examined, from a gendered perspective, the Purim costumes market in Israel, to see what I might learn from a comparison between costumes aimed at boys and those aimed at girls. I conducted a visual and textual analysis of 60 Purim costumes for girls and boys, as presented on retail websites and found that Purim costumes offered on these popular Israeli websites present such clearly demarcated gender differentiations that I can claim that they play a part in the commodification of gender. The alleged choice of costumes is in fact strategically governed by marketing practices that mobilize the media culture targeted at children.

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Why is it important?

One of the important questions regarding the study of costumes in the context of gender is whether costumes—of the sort used for dress-up holidays such as Purim or Halloween—reproduce common gender roles and stereotypes, or challenge and undermine them? Do they allow gender role reversal in the fantasy expressions customary in Purim and similar rituals in various cultures? This study helps in answering these questions.