Call me a party poop

Last week a  local news station in Donna,  Texas reported on a piñata store that is selling piñatas of topless women, some with stripper poles between their legs. The topless piñatas are being sold right next to piñatas of Elmo and Batman and they’re hanging outside the piñata shop where drivers (and their children) can get an eyeful when passing by. 


Aside from children being exposed to these images, I have another problem with these piñatas. The report states that the piñatas are popular for bachelor parties. I certainly understand and appreciate the cultural significance of piñatas in the Latino community. If you grew up having something like this at your childhood parties it would be great, for the sake of nostalgia, to revisit this tradition as an adult. When I was in California, and therefore living 3,000 miles away from family, I had my 23rd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s to help cope with homesickness. 


But the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard about this was symbolic violence against women. You may think I’m overreacting but the idea of a human figure being hanged from a ceiling or tied to a tree and then beat with a stick makes me cringe. The fact that the piñatas represent strippers is even more disturbing. Female exotic dancers are sometimes not viewed as people with human emotions and rights, but simply objects there to offer pleasure to customers and can be subject to assault because of this attitude. 


Obviously, not all women feel the way I do about this. The news report says that some women buy the topless piñatas for their husbands. But Edd, you can forget about having one of these at your next birthday party. 




What do you think of the topless piñatas?