Halle Bailey's Inappropriate Outfit For Halloween 2024 Will Always Haunt Her

The stars on our list of the worst celebrity Halloween costumes in 2024 were there for typical reasons: lackluster effort, overdone looks, and costumes that seemed to be more interested in controversy than creativity. However, singer and actor Halle Bailey's look was in a league of its own. The star of "The Little Mermaid" wore an inappropriate version of 6-year-old Lilo from "Lilo & Stitch." She wore a bikini top that showed a lot of under-boob and a Hawaiian leaf skirt, also known as a ti leaf skirt, that was sultry and nothing like what Lilo wears in the film.

This upset folks for several reasons. For one, Hollywood has a longstanding history of sexualizing girls. From Brooke Shields to Dominique Swain and Sue Lyon, there's a heartbreaking list of real children who were victims. And when stars create sexualized versions of child characters, it can slowly but steadily desensitize people to the warning signs of real issues.

Now, beyond the obvious goof, it's clear that Bailey thought the costume was a sweet way to match costumes with her son, Halo. On Halloween, she posted photos of herself dressed as Lilo and Halo dressed as Stitch with the caption "Ohana means family," a central phrase from Disney's classic 2002 movie. The idea would have been a smashing hit if she'd worn an actual Lilo costume, but instead, she chose to wear a Hawaii-inspired Playboy outfit and enraged the internet.

Social media wasn't sold on Halle Bailey's inappropriate Lilo costume

Suffice it to say, the internet was pretty disappointed with Halle Bailey's inappropriate Halloween costume. On Instagram, one commenter called her out for not respecting the culture behind the costume, writing, "The idea is cute, but maybe wear culturally accurate Hawaiian attire." Another pointed out that dressing up as Nani, Lilo's older sister, would have been a better idea. 

The comments on X were harsher and more direct. One user called her out for sexualizing Lilo because it "leads [to] further fetishisation of real indigenous girls & #MMIWG2S, pls do better!" The hashtag is a reminder of the murdered/missing Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit movement, which spotlights how frequently native women and girls go missing and face sexual crimes.

Still, the comments on Reddit were perhaps the most biting. Several commenters seemed to believe that she felt pressured to assemble one of best revenge outfits of 2024 because her breakup with longtime partner DDG had been announced earlier that month and went about it in the worst way possible. "Feels like she had the idea of being Lilo and Stitch (which is very cute), but then felt the need to sex it up because that's a big pressure for most celebrity women," one Redditor wrote. Others called her out for thirst-trapping with inappropriate pictures and using her baby as a prop, while others said she was sexualizing a child character. "I find it really creepy when adults dress up as children characters but in a provocative way," another Redditor said.

For a future Halloween, we'd love to see her in another princess-style look similar to the outfit that got her on our list of the best 2023 Oscars looks.

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