Happy Halloween 2013: Rainbow Dash edition!

"I'm not ashamed to dress 'like a woman' because I don't think it's shameful to be a woman." - Iggy Pop

Well folks, it's that time of year once again: to share my favorite holiday with you and change my digital avatar for the next 365 days! Traditionally, I've dressed as superhero-figures from my childhood, but I wanted to switch it up a little bit this year. This year, my halloween costume is based on Rainbow Dash.

Image credit: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 1 Episode 16, via http://mlp.wikia.com/. Image credit: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 1 Episode 16, via http://mlp.wikia.com/.

For those of you who've never encountered the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic television show (recommended by me), there are six main characters: all female, all ponies (two pegasi, two unicorns, and two "Earth ponies"), and all with different personalities and inner struggles. Rainbow dash is loyal, brave, and the most talented flyer in the land, but she's also insecure, easily annoyed, proud and a bit of a braggart.

Image credit: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 2 Episode 7, via http://mlp.wikia.com/. Image credit: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 2 Episode 7, via http://mlp.wikia.com/.

She also has a pet tortoise named Tank, and dreams of joining the Wonderbolts, which is the My Little Pony equivalent of the crew from Top Gun.

Image credit: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 1 Episode 3, via http://mlp.wikia.com/. Image credit: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Season 1 Episode 3, via http://mlp.wikia.com/.

There's no reason you shouldn't dress up as a character of another gender (or species) for Halloween, so even though this was a bit of a unique challenge this year, it was one I was excited to take on!

Without further ado, here's my take on a Rainbow Dash costume! (With some dog photobombs.)

Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.
Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.

Yes, if you were wondering, that is my real facial hair dyed rainbow colors, special for today!

Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.

Like the "real" Rainbow Dash, I thought it was important to get a pet tortoise...

Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.

and I also thought it was important to prepare just in case there was an opening at the Wonderbolts academy.

Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.
Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.

Finally, for those of you who are fans of the show, here's a little inside joke (with a bad pun) that will make this photo 20% cooler for you!

Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me. Image credit: Jamie Cummings, taken of me.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

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Great costume, but Rainbow Dash with a beard? I don't know . . .

By Physicalist (not verified) on 31 Oct 2013 #permalink

The colors in your beard need to be brighter. I was going to call you out for a rainbow fail, but then I realized you did have some color in there. The costume looks fun. wrong, wrong, wrong, but fun. :)

@Physicalist- just pretend it's a mane since he doesn't have the hair to rainbowify :)

There’s no reason you shouldn’t dress up as a character of another gender (or species)

Well, that's okay. But...but...a character with no beard?!? Sacrilege!

Ah, whatever. I guess breaking stereotypes is kinda part of the point. All the best tonight!

OMG Ethan... ROFL!! :D

By Sinisa Lazarek (not verified) on 31 Oct 2013 #permalink

I see eight reasons why you shouldn't dress up as a character of another gender or species.

That's pretty cool!

Oh My God!
What have you done? Are you mad, crazy, demented?
One of my favorite physicists, a man of knowledge and intellect and you go make THIS spectacle of yourself.
Have you no pride, Ethan?
Good Lord!
Bald head, long black beard, powder blue spandex tights, an electric blue tail and black oxford shoes?!
Are you trying to be aesthetically disgusting?
Let me put this to you bluntly since some of the realities of the universe appear to be beyond your comprehension.

LOSE THE SHOES, BRO!

Awesome, Dudette.

I'm getting too old. You picked another character with whom I am unfamiliar.

I always thought the idea that calling a man "a big girl" was a serious insult (especially when you call a woman "a big girl" under the same circumstances) rather unfeeling of the androgyne, asexual, chimeric and every other of the myriad "sexes" of humankind that do not fall into the false dichotomy of "male" and "female".

And cross dressing is another re-endorcement that someone who isn't definitively one or the other sex is somehow less than either.

That someone identifying with one definitive sex of the two arbitrary decisions then decides to blur the line should be seen as a damn good thing.

Hell the blokes who were the FIRST into a Basque and Stockings were the hard-hitting/heavy-drinking/ur-Male: Rugby players.

Not that this is some sort of shout-out to the wrongheadedness. It's almost definitely NOT that. Just a statement of "I know who the fuck I am. How I dress has nothing to do with this.".

But it helps those who have felt that neither sex really fitted them to see that "real solid people" don't care. And maybe they don't have to either.

So well done, Ethan.

Not sure about the tints in the beard, though

:-)

"LOSE THE SHOES, BRO!"

No. Without the shoes, the image becomes faux "Salvador Dali"-style impressionistic. Any art of TRUE inspirational madness must have an element of the mundane or it shows itself as forced.

Without the shoes, a call back to the staid standard life lived, the image becomes disconnected with reality and therefore, less real.

The shoes would indicate that the Ethan you see every day on the street is still there. And he is the one who WOULD WEAR blue spandex. It is not odd. Just dress.

If not, then it's just a dude dressing up for shits& giggles.

Classic. Great costume, amusing and brave.

Great dog too. (Owned by a Jack Russell-cross-Fox terrier myself.)

Happy Halloween! :-)

@6.Bibs : "I see eight reasons why you shouldn’t dress up as a character of another gender or species."

You serious?

I can't. Nor it seems can you actually name any of these eight reasons or can you?

(FWIW, I've dressed in a koala costume and marched as one in last year's local Xmas pagent - fun if a bit hot.)

Having been ignorant of _Pony_ until you explained it, all I could say was "holy cow dude, you get a Cute Award for that."

Good going, especially for playing with gender. Binary gender is a cultural construct overlaid on top of far more complex biological and cognitive/emotional realities.

I can imagine this column getting into the hands of religious righties, and their proverbial heads exploding when they see it. Or they might use it for propaganda: "See, all those sciency types are queer as hell, and going to Hell too!" blah blah blah. Maybe they'll try to boycott the _Pony_ stuff too. Heh, the joke's on them.

Hey Brony! (I just learned about this particular subculture from my middle-school son a couple of months ago.) I think the shoes are spot on. They are supposed to look like hooves, right? The costume is pure awesomeness.

To use a quote from another great cartoon:
"Well ain't that cute, BUT IT'S WRONG!!!!"

Do you play for the Boston Red Sox?

Last pic--could you move the cooler 20 cm to the left? Thank you.

O.M.G !!

Great great costume Ethan :)

I found this entry while looking for male costumes... I'm gay btw and gotta admit that you look super hot in that blue spandex dude. Great body. I couldn't help noticing very specific areas of the costume lol. And no, don't move the cooler lol.