Ah, Halloween: an opportunity for some to execute elaborate, transformative costumes, and for others to throw on whatever they can find at the back of their closet. Typically, celebrities fall into the former camp — we’re all familiar with, say, Heidi Klum’s gigantic worm suit or the Kardashians’ glamorous Halloween photoshoots.
Predictably, these labor-intensive stunts generate plenty of headlines. Halloween has become, in some respects, an opportunity for free press — and in the case of a poorly thought-out costume, a PR nightmare. This year, Lil Nas X finds himself at the center of public debate over his spooky season ensemble. Last night, the rapper dressed up as a bloody tampon emerging from a cardboard vagina — a costume that has elicited a wide range of responses online.
To some, the outfit is harmless camp, so ridiculous that it’s funny. To others, it was in poor taste — periods are “gross” and therefore, dressing up as a used tampon is crude. Other opinions expressed in Lil Nas X’s comments section take things a step further: Intentionally or not, say some, the costume mocks the pain and shame people experience while menstruating. On the flip side, say others, it actually helps destigmatize periods by poking fun at them; maybe it was meant as commentary on how horrific the experience of having a period can be.
There’s no right or wrong answer here. That said, we have zero evidence that Lil Nas X intended to make some grand statement on menstruation and the stigma surrounding it (if that was his intention, there are other, more practical ways he could’ve done so). What we do know is that Lil Nas X doesn’t menstruate. He’s never dealt with the pain of cramps and headaches, or the inconvenience of blood-stained clothing and sheets. He’ll never miss work or school because of stabbing pain in his uterus, and he won’t ever feel the side effects of birth control pills or IUDs, measures often prescribed to treat period pain.
This isn’t the first time Lil Nas X has generated buzz by toying with hallmarks of womanhood. In 2022, he rolled out his album, MONTERO, with a “pregnancy” photoshoot. The implication: He “birthed” the musical project, his “baby.” To be clear, not everyone who menstruates or gives birth is a woman — but both processes are innately tied to femininity and because of this, can have real financial and social consequences on the people experiencing them (period poverty and pregnancy discrimination are just two examples).
Conservative talking heads will inevitably bash Lil Nas X, long a target of right-wing homophobia, for subverting gender binaries (they already criticized him for disrespecting the “sanctity of womanhood” with his faux pregnancy photoshoot). But the issue isn’t that the rapper is aligning himself with traditionally feminine things, or even that period blood and tampons are vulgar and best swept under the rug (they’re perfectly natural). The ick-factor here is that Lil Nas X’s costume seems to serve little purpose beyond shocking viewers. By turning tampons and vaginas into a Halloween spectacle, he only reinforces the notion that menstruation is something to gawk at, rather than normalize. Period.
