Ricky's Sells, Then Pulls "Anna Rexia" Costume

By Margaret Hartmann  |  September 22, 2011 | 2:22am
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Remeber that sexy anorexia Halloween costume that made us all chuckle at the plight of those suffering from eating disorders sad about the state of humanity a few years ago? Ricky’s, the costume and beauty store chain, recently started selling it. If that link isn’t loading for you, the problem isn’t that too many people are trying to buy it at once. Ricky’s pulled the costume today, but only because people started complaining, not because someone at the company suddenly realized it’s incredibly fucked up.

This morning The Village Voice reported that Ricky’s was selling the costume and within an hour it was gone. According to Gothamist, a rep said, “We seriously apologize if this costume has offended anyone. The costume has been taken down from our store due to the complaints and we didn’t realize the kind of harm this would cause.”

Now we have to issue an Amy Poehler-style “Really?!!?!” No one at Ricky’s saw that costume and said, “hang on a second…”? Are the item descriptions uploaded to the store’s website directly from a warehouse in a foreign land where not a soul speaks English?

Obviously the costume is meant to be a joke, but as William Walters of the National Eating Disorders Association says, “It’s hard for us to find it funny.” Yet it seems there are plenty of people who think jokes about women starving themselves to death and girls being stupid are the height of comedy — and a lot of them work at clothing retailers! In the past few weeks Topman, Forever 21, and JCPenney have all pulled tee shirts bearing idiotic and sexist slogans. In each case, dozens of people had to sign off on the items before they made it into stores. The only good thing we can say about these folks is that at least a few of them aren’t sizeist. Halloween Store is still selling the “Anna Rexia” costume in both regular and plus-sizes.

Ricky’s Is Selling an ‘Anna Rexia’ Halloween Costume [Update] [Village Voice]
Get That “Anna Rexia” Look This Halloween! [Gothamist]

Earlier: This Halloween, Be A Sexy Racist!
New Topman T-Shirts Imply That Your Girlfriend Is A Dog

 
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