The Sexy Handmaid's Tale Costume Was Fine

After a mere half-day of internet outrage, Yandy has pulled a look from its online store that, while technically titled “Brave Red Maven Costume,” can only accurately be described as “Sexy Handmaid’s Tale Costume” in my book. People apparently were mad that an outfit used to depict a subordinate class of women in Margaret Atwood’s immensely popular book The Handmaid’s Tale and in the Hulu original series that followed could also be used for fun.

I’m here to tell something to those people: Life is somehow both short and very, cruelly long. In the grand scheme of things, what you dress up as for Halloween absolutely does not matter. (But because I know someone is going to say this in the comments, if you choose to dress up as something racist, that’s pretty bad, bro.) Let people dress as whatever they like! Repressed handmaid, sexy handmaid, toaster (I dressed up as a cell phone one year because it was the early 2000s and I wanted to be cool), sexy toaster, who cares! I think Yandy should bring back the look, and if not, I’m sure some enterprising young college students are going to fashion this out of fishnets, heels, a red bandage dress and cape, and white cardboard with a headband elastic anyway.

The human desire to be read as sexy knows almost no bounds. And as Managing Editor Megan Reynolds mentioned, this would make a great club outfit. What’s sexier than catching a hot stranger’s eye at the bar through your bonnet? What makes a better dramatic entrance or exit than a billowing red cape? If you live for drama, I think this is the look for you!

Some might call this costume dumb. I would not disagree, but I would counter that existing is a series of futile and embarrassing experiments. When you think of that, why not wear this out? Live your life. Control your destiny. Wear the cape.