Pimp costumes ill-fitting? Some see popular Halloween garb as more trash than flash

Pimp (pimp) n. One who provides means and opportunities for unlawful sexual intercourse; a panderer, v. to act as a pimp or pander; to pander, to scrounge off; to take advantage of.

— Oxford English Dictionary

ST. LOUIS — As Halloween revelers head into this weekend of festivities, they can expect to see lots of pimps, or at least people pretending to be pimps.

Dressed in colorful, often-garish costumes will be teenage pimps, adult pimps, female pimps, even children dressed as pimps, thanks to a Los Angeles-based firm that has been selling thousands of the outfits for the past two years.

Some may come knocking on your door with the traditional, "trick or treat." If not, you certainly will be able to find hundreds, maybe even thousands at the dozens of "Pimp and Hooker" balls taking place this weekend, such as the four in the Baltimore area, the fourth annual "Pimp and Ho' Halloween Bash" in Chicago, the seventh annual "Pimp and Prostitute" Ball in Houston, or the ones in Detroit or Las Vegas.

Pimping, to the dismay of some, has become a part of popular culture — from rapper Nelly's energy drink Pimp Juice, which has sold more than 4 million units worldwide, to the hit MTV television series "Pimp My Ride" to a Web site that sells "Pimp and Ho" costumes for children. Pimping has changed from a word that once described a profession that even hard-core criminals considered near the bottom of their occupational ladder to something hip.

"I wouldn't say it's a positive thing," said Kimberly Osorio, editor of Vibe, the nation's leading music and culture magazine for young adults. "The word is always going to be defined as what it has been, however, there are ways that you can use the word positively, and that's what hip-hop has done over the years."

The cultural embrace of the term crosses lines of color, class and age.

It includes advertising executives, accountants, nurses, truck drivers and others from suburban Baltimore who for the past four years have gathered twice annually for their Pimp and Hooker Ball at Padonia Station in Timonium, Md.

It includes a plethora of music artists — from white rocker Kid Rock to black rapper 50 Cent — whose songs extol the virtues of being a pimp.

It includes "Pimp My Bride," a headline on the CBS News Web site for a column about marriage reality shows and the new Japanese PIMP wristwatch at a Japanese novelty store, TokyoFlash. It includes Web sites, such as phatpimpclothing.com and pimphats.com, where people can buy pimp and whore garb. In white suburbia, prostitute theme parties have become the rage in private homes.

The trend includes Judith Southard, a makeup artist and esthetician at Lemon Spalon in upscale Central West End in St. Louis.

"The No. 1 makeup look that I'm doing for Halloween this year is of prostitutes," Southard said.

Not everyone is happy about this heightened interest in pimps. Nelly has had to defend the name he chose for his energy drink, particularly when some black organizations threatened to boycott it.

"In hip-hop, we take words that are negative and turn them into a positive," Nelly said last month. "These are words kids hear every day in the neighborhoods, so let's turn them into positives. I got a little son who's 5 years old. He'll come in and I'll ask how he did on the coloring test, and he'll say, 'I pimped it, man, I got an A.' It's not derogative."

Jonathan Weeks designed the Pimp and Ho Costumes for Brands On Sale, a Los Angeles based-company that sells costumes, appliances, jewelry and a wide variety of other items primarily on the Internet. He and his company have taken heat for coming up with the outfits.

"Anyone who sells this crap to children or lets them wear it should be shot in the face," Chris wrote in a posted message after reviewing the product on the Internet.

"I AM VERY ANGRY," Hashim wrote.

"I hate it enough when it's frat boys and sorority girls, but children ... ," Anne wrote. "What awful parents."

Weeks says he made the costumes in response to customer demand.

"We just give the people what they want," he said. "We're not in the business of exploiting children. This is just a costume."

But law-enforcement officials and social workers, particularly those whose job it is to arrest real pimps and in many cases actually rescue women and girls from prostitution, find it appalling.

"I don't think any of this is funny at all," said Lois Lee, president and founder of Children of the Night, a Van Nuys, Calif.-based nonprofit that rescues children from prostitution. "What these guys do is not funny at all. There's nothing hip or funny about torturing children, and that's what they do."

Sgt. Joe Delia of the Maryland Heights, Mo., Police Department said he, too, is irked by playful references to pimps and prostitutes.

"When I hear of these pimps and whores balls," he said, "I think it's just ignorance. They don't understand the issue here. Would people find it offensive if they were having slavery parties? Because it's the same thing."

Not so, said Brad Altman, a concert and event promoter who expects 1,000 people at his Pimp and Ho Halloween bash today in downtown Chicago. Showtime will be filming the party for its television series "Family Business."

"I do understand the relationship between a real pimp and a real prostitute, and that's not a joking matter, but on the other hand, this is a Halloween theme party," said Altman, 43. "There's no harm intended. It's a reason to come dressed up. I would agree if this was offensive, if people were coming to this party and slapping their girlfriends and wives around. This party is not to objectify women."