Princess Vader: the cute is strong in this one

Redditor JonXP made this wicked "Princess Vader" costume at his five year old daughter's request: "I painted the helmet, and sewed the cape (my first sewing project ever). It was fun to put together."

My 5yo daughter wanted to be a Princess Darth Vader for Halloween. So proud. (imgur.com)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Copyfight • costume • gender • halloween • happy mutants • Kids • parenting • reddit • star wars

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100

Feel the power of the pink side.
sincarne

Things that are home made (modified?); and girls who are encouraged to enjoy SF, stupid stereotypes be damned. So awesome.
quietstorms

I have no doubt that if Star Wars were released today Darth Vader would be voted ‘The Sexiest Man Alive’.
- Jacarutu!
  
  Sexiest child mass murderer alive. Get it in perspective.
Max

“pink darth vader helmet” …snicker…
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

“With,” man. “With.”
http://www.facebook.com/michael.valera.s Michael Valera

This is really awesome. I love gender-swap costumes, but doing it for kids seems even better.
t3kna2007

(my first sewing project ever)

Defensive disclaimer to avoid exile from Guyville. Don’t worry dude, we’re with you. Awesome work.
http://twitter.com/am_klaafe Fisches Nachtgesang

This is cute at first sight. One thought though: Why does a 5-year old even know who Darth Vader is?!
- oasisob1
  
  Good parenting.
- zombienietzsche
  
  What exactly are you complaining about? A film with a modicum of violence; a lack of sex; and quintessential story-telling elements?
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  Star Wars is huge with young kids, mainly because of the cartoons. My son has about five light sabers.
- JonXP
  
  She likes to play Lego Star Wars with me.
- Nicole Campbell
  
  My 3yr old loves Vader and is Darth Vader for Halloween this yr. So is his lil fiend. Even preschoolers love Star Wars!
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LFHOEUG3QJAEWPNI2CFIOYD6EM Katie
  
  My mom used to use borrowing the Star Wars tapes from my neighbour as a bribe to get us to behave even when we were in kindergarten. We didn’t sit and watch every movie all the way through, and of course we closed our eyes during the scary parts, but we thought it was awesome. The good guys win, the bad guys turn out to be not that bad and there is a seven foot tall hair dude, what WOULDN’T a five year old like?
- mary elizabeth newsom
  
  You didn’t know who Darth Vader was when you were five? I feel a tremendous amount of pity for you and your family.
outer rower

It’s Jeff Vader’s kid.
darue keller

on the kids in costumes theme…
for your enjoyment… Ladies and gentlemen, I present the number one video of 2011
for the Bee Gee’s 1968 smash hit… Come Some Christmas Eve Or Halloween
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni09NNQ8kGU
djef

My daughter loves Star Wars. And I’m proud to say she’s never seen any of the three awful recent ones.
mtdna

Is this Luke and Leia’s long lost sister? Are they triplets?? Or perhaps Luke and Leia’s mother? All will be revealed in Star Wars Episode VII: Pretty in Pink.
PhosPhorious

I’m really impressed with her stance. Kid has technique.
Zig

Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this. Wonderful first time sewing job, JonXP!
http://dougsamu.wordpress.com doug rogers

I parcel out my goodies – mini chocolate bars – at one per kid. The good costumes and or cute kids get two. This one wins a whole handful of chocolate bars.
Just_Ok

Luke, you have two fathers.
gus mueller

what is it about little girls and pink? is this because there are no other ways to distinguish genders at that age? that’s right, to tell the world what sex your girl is, make her the color of vagina.
- cameronhorsburgh
  
  I’m not familiar with all that many of them, but from what I’ve seen pink seems to be pretty common on penises too.
- BookGuy
  
  When my son wanted to go trick or treating as a vagina, I insisted that his costume be blue so that nobody got any funny ideas about him.
- http://twitter.com/JayStephens Jay Stephens
  
  It’s nurture not nature of course (and culturally/historically specific) but it’s damn subtle. We carefully avoided gender specific clothing and toys, we have no TV in the house, and our 4YO daughter’s peer group pretty much do likewise. Nevertheless most of the girls in her peer group have developed an obsession with the colour and demand/specify it for bedspreads, curtains, toys and so on. I guess we could just overrule her wishes.
- Just Good Sense
  
  There’s nothing about little girls and pink. Before World War II, pink, blue, white, whatever, were used interchangeably for boys and girls. Pink for girls is a wholly arbitrary cultural preference of modern parents. Youkinlookitup!
  - sincarne
    
    I’ll help, since I had this one bookmarked: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/25/genderissues
    
    The illustrious Ben Goldacre on the subject.
    
    ‘Back in the days when ladies had a home journal (in 1918) the Ladies’ Home Journal wrote: “There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger colour is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”‘
gus mueller

now that you mention it, a pink darth vader looks a lot like a penis. for cultural reasons, though, it still reads as “female.”
bodenski

pink is new black? yeah!
holyalmost

I love the creativity in this, the fact that the little girl thought it up all by herself and had a parent awesome enough to help her make it.

I had a friend growing up who’s mom would never let her dress as a male character on Halloween because cross dressing under any situation was inappropriate. My parents taught me that Halloween was about dressing as whatever you wanted for one night. I got to be Leonardo, my friend got to be some nameless turtle with a pink mask. She wasn’t even allowed to be Donatello. It was a total injustice!

I wish I had been this smart as a child, combining two different costumes would’ve been more time effective than changing my mind ten times in October.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I had a friend growing up who’s mom would never let her dress as a male character on Halloween because cross dressing under any situation was inappropriate.
  
  My mother made me a lovely Flying Nun costume for Halloween when I was ten. But then she dressed me as Satan for my first trick or treat outing when I was 5.
professor

Just wait till she comes out with the line “Daddy, I am your father… now go clean my room!”
Faith Landsman

My niece’s costumes for the first 3 years of life were, in order of appearance:

Pumpkin
Baby Elvis
Manny Ramirez
Darla Sowders

Great job on the costume, JonXP!

It’s just a color, people. You all think too much. She likes Darth Vader. She likes pink. She sees no reason why her costume cannot be both. She’s a smart kid.
Bobsyeruncle

Hello Kitty Vader can only be destroyed by more candy. *hint* *hint*