Halloween PSA Shatters Stereotypes Around Gendered Kids' Costumes

Wonder Woman is breaking down all kinds of barriers this year!

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

October 30 2017 1:44 PM EST

July 11 2018 11:59 PM EST

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Superhero costumes have always been big Halloween business, but with the success of Patty Jenkins's big-screen Wonder Woman, the Amazon warrior is one of the biggest costume draws of the year, giving Batman, Superman, and the rest of them a run for their money.

Walk into any costume store and the plastic bags stuffed with ready-made costumes are gendered: superheroes for boys and princesses for girls. But a new public service announcement titled "My Heroes" challenges the traditional gendered costume.

The two-minute film, written by Alexander Day and Brian Carufe, directed by Almog Avidan Antonir, and produced by Landwirth Legacy Productions, which "aims to create entertaining and educational visual content and stories that seek to enrich, empower, and inspire audiences," begins with a dad and his young children, who present as a boy and a girl, carving pumpkins into the Wonder Woman and Batman logos. Their mom arrives with costumes to correspond with the heroes whose symbols they've carved, and after some hand-holding and reassurance between the mom and dad, the family goes trick-or-treating.

It's not until the last candy has been dropped in the trick-or-treat bag and the family is back home that the kids' costume choices are revealed. The dad, who initially appeared trepidatious about his kids breaking down gender barriers in a public space, looks longingly at his kids and says, "My heroes."