A Brief Gender Analysis of Heidi Klum’s Halloween Costume
The supermodel's reasoning behind her E.T. costume is delightful, albeit strange.
CelebritiesDirt BagYes, yesterday was Halloween, but more importantly, last night was Heidi Klum’s annual Halloween Party held at New York City’s Hard Rock Hotel. It was the party’s 23rd year, and the supermodel once again pulled out all the stops with her costume and dressed as otherworldly cinematic icon, E.T. Specifically she dressed as E.T. in disguise, with a blonde wig and tiny bowler hat. Her husband, Tom Kaulitz, dressed as not-in-drag E.T.
E.T.’s large, football shaped head sat above Klum’s own head and her eyes peeked out through the folds in the alien’s neck—a situation I’d be more disturbed by if it wasn’t reminiscent of her Earth-shattering 2022 worm costume. Frankly, nothing can or will top that. However, I think we ought to give some consideration as to why Klum chose dressed up as E.T. this year.
“They have no genitals, I like the whole idea of, like, we’re all the same,” she explained to the New York Times—a pull quote that feels like it belongs in a Clickhole article headlined “Heidi Klum said what?!” I mean, sure. I’ve never thought about E.T.’s genitals, to be fair, and I suppose she isn’t wrong. But is it cannon that E.T. doesn’t have genitals? Can we get Steven Spielberg on the line?
Were her and Kaulitz’s paired E.T. costumes a comment on the fluidity of gender? Because she pointedly did dress up as E.T. in drag. Did her 2022 worm costume have genitals? Was that one of the reasons she chose it? Did this line of questioning cause me to Google “do worms have genitalia?” and be reminded that they are biologically hermaphrodites and possess both male and female genitalia? (Yes.)
But I think the important takeaway here is that, out of all the reasons Klum could have chosen to elaborately make herself into the iconic alien, it was because they are a beacon of non-binary realness! Her mind…
Happy Halloween Heidi, you truly are an out-of-the-box thinker.
- Janelle Monae also dressed as E.T. this year. Awk. [Instagram]
- Taylor Momsen dressed up as the bat who bit her. [Instagram]
- One way to get Thom Yorke to stop playing is to heckle him on being anti-BDS. [The Guardian]
- J.Lo is, once again, getting loud. The singer endorsed Kamala Harris after a Donald Trump surrogate’s racist Puerto Rico joke. [MSNBC]
- Alexandra Daddario had a Halloween baby! [People]