Pull your pants up, man - posted at 20:38

It's old news by now: several communities throughout America are passing some form of legislation that bans, of all things, baggy pants.

Don't get me wrong, I think the the way some guys wear their pants is ridiculous and god knows I gave my brother all kinds of unending crap when we were younger and he insisted on sagging. I'm all for guys actually wearing their pants at their natural waist, of all places. But putting it into law? That's an extremely slippery slope, if you ask me. It's not at all surprising that many communities are grouping it into the realm of public indecency, which in itself is an extremely subjective grouping. What's next? Are we going to ban people from wearing their hats backwards, or pass a law that prevents them from wearing them indoors at all? Are we going to ban wearing red shirts on Monday? Or are we just going to go after what is different and group it as indecent? Because, really, guys showing boxers is pretty tame compared to the way a lot of girls dress, and I don't see anything about that being legislated.

For me, that's really the crux of the issue: we, as a society, are apparently so offended by seeing the (still covered) backsides of some guys that we're willing to throw the book at them, but when a female dresses in a similar way - or in an even more aggravated fashion - what happens? I have yet to hear of a law that forbids women from wearing low-rise jeans that show their thongs or even their ass cracks. See, guys at least have the common courtesy to wear long shirts that for all intents and purposes render their skivvies invisible, but women are baring their backsides. Apparently, female plumber crack is the new black.

So I, a women who dresses pretty modestly - especially compared to a lot of other females in this country - am worried about the message that this sends to other young women. No no no, we don't want guys to dress in a way that shows an iota of skin, but girls, your bodies apparently mean so little to you and are so undeserving of respect that you are permitted - nay, encouraged - to flaunt every inch of it. Yeah, I get that the female form is supposedly more beautiful and all that. And guys, you should really pull those pants up, because you look absurd. But girls, that's a message you'd do well to heed too, because it's a lot harder for other people to take you seriously when it looks like you don't even have the ability to cover your own ass.

Melissa commented:

Definitely two good thoughts here... one resonates with the innate fear anyone who's tasted freedom will have when prohibited from something as minute as wearing their pants low (which I do agree is not an attractive trend...) If they can take away this, what else can they take away? The second is that there are, always have been, and probably, sadly, will always continue to be two standards for women and men.

Women, commercially, will continue to be seen as objects and men as objectable, choosing creatures. Not that men don't have their own bad stereotypes, they do (I know many men who are secretly more emotional than society will allow them to be without the stigma placed upon them that they might be gay...) but this is a good example where society is not progressing forward but backward.

Good thoughts Stacey :)

Jitterbean Girl commented:

I'm glad you brought the word commercially into this, because isn't that what this is really all boils down to? The media by and large sets trends and the media knows that the amount of money they make is inversely proportional to the amount of clothes women wear and directly proportional to that worn by men. Ahhhh, I'm no longer confused by the music videos that show guys in puffy parkas with bikini-clad women dancing behind them on a ski slope...

I realize that the reason most communities are passing these laws about sagging pants goes back to the fact that inmates in jails can't wear belts so they sag and the trend got outside the jails and legistators are worried about the trend that people are emulating. But seriously dude, are you going to criminalize a guy for sagging his pants but turn a blind eye when the girl on his arm is dressed more like a hooker than a businesswoman?

Anyway, I think I'm preaching to the choir here :)