My Great-Great Grandmother Was a Dystopian Halloween Costume

Tiffany Morris

Who can resist the chance to climb
into another skin? Into myth-spit
caricature? A sideshow mockery
in felt-dripped-fringe?

Who can resist		the chance to climb
into another skin?		Into myth-spit
caricature?		A sideshow mockery
in		felt-dripped-fringe?
A technicolor		chicken-feathered ghoul
ripped		from a century of
Hollywood		nightmares?
	Look!
For $30 a pop		there are Indian maidens
princesses		warriors like a million
fake		great-great-grandmothers
born		in family lore and
rolling		in forgotten graves.
But		thank goodness:
no more		Handmaids
with their		bloodred robes
opened		like a mouth
grinning		red
like horror		red
like wounding		red
like a slur		kept alive
under		your eye

Artist Statement:

There was enough public outcry when costume retailer Yandy released its “sexy” take on “The Handmaid’s Tale” costume that it was ultimately pulled from their catalog. In a 2017 interview with Cosmopolitan, the same retailer stated it would not pull its racist costumes depicting Indigenous women, due to a lack of controversy and public outcry. So, here are my questions, for retailers and consumers alike: why are fictional women a higher priority than Indigenous women? Whose dystopias reflect whose realities?

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Tiffany Morris is a Mi’kmaw writer from K’jipuktuk (Halifax). Her horror fiction and poetry have appeared in Eye To The Telescope, Augur, Room, and anthologies from Clash Books, among others. Find her at tiffmorris.com or on Twitter @tiffmorris.