Great Halloween Ideas from Take Back Halloween

My Halloween costume was good and ready by Thursday night and, just when I was happy with what I was going to be, I came across this.

Ada Lovelace Costume from Take Back Halloween

I want it!

Not many people know who Ada Lovelace is, and that's a shame. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. And she was the mother of programming. That's right, she was writing the first programs for the proto-computer created by Charles Babbage.

This costume is from an amazing website called Take Back Halloween: A Costume Guide for Women with Imagination. The idea behind the site is that it has become increasingly common for women to dress up in 'sexy something' costumes. While there is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to look nice or sexy on Halloween, most of these ill-fitting polyester numbers are silly, demeaning or downright offensive. And some are just bizarre. So, the folks over at Take Back Halloween came up with this great costume resource  honoring some great women of history: activists, queens, heroines, goddesses and stars.    

I've already picked two costumes for next year's Halloween 

Persephone 

Emma Goldman 

A few other great Halloween costumes ideas: Jane Austen, Pele, Nzinga, Josephine Baker, Sappho.