Walmart Pulls 'Naughty Leopard' Costume, Because We All Forgot What 'Naughty' Means—The Decoder

It's finally starting to feel like fall—am i right? The leaves are changing color, the air is crisp, and stores are entering their fourth month of selling Halloween-related merchandise: 

Candy, Jack-o-lanterns, Jake-o-lanterns ...

... and most importantly, all the naughty costumes. You know, the ones where young American women get to dress up like sexy versions of anything you can think of.

There's the naughty clown.

The naughty dolphin.

The naughty lawsuit waiting to happen.

And who could forget the infamous naughty leopard?

No, no. Not that naughty leopard. This one. The one meant for two-year-old girls that's for sale at Walmarts around the country. 

First posted on Consumerist, this costume caused immediate outrage among parents and women's advocacy groups, including community blog Feministing, which called the costume "deliberate marketing ... that's leading to this completely inappropriate sexualization of young girls."

In fact, this naughty little leopard caused such a stir that Walmart spokesperson Danit Marquardt—who is a person, and not a piece of Ikea furniture—has said the store is already working on pulling the costumes from its shelves. And you know what? Good. Because I'm outraged, too.

But not because this costume contains sexist messaging and perpetuates thousands of years of misogyny and gender inequality. 

You can argue that point all you want, but I don't buy it. In my opinion, there's nothing sexual about this photo at all.

It's a little girl wearing a cat costume that sparkles, as little girls have done since the dawn of time. What pisses me off is the hijacking of the word "naughty" to mean "sexy," when it actually means a bunch of other things. 

The definition of "naughty," according to Dictionary.com, is: "disobedient; mischievous, used especially in speaking to or about children." As in, weren't we naughty not to eat our spinach? 

So, unless you get turned on by not eating spinach—weirdo—naughty shouldn't have any sexual connotation here at all. 

But if, for some reason, you're incapable of hearing the word naughty without getting all hot and bothered—maybe we can just replace it with one of the dozens of other words that mean naughty. 

What about rascally?

Playful?

Impish?

Nothing sexy about impish. 

Or even more appropriate: how about bullshit? Because this is a bullshit leopard. I mean, just look at it. The coloration is all wrong. It's got ruffles instead of fur, and there's no tail. It's a dress with ears. 

See? Leopard: 

Bullshit leopard:

So why don't we take it for what it actually is—bullshi—and not buy it for our children.

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Original article from TakePart