August 29th / 31st, 2008
"Saggy Pants Create Controversy"
At age 54, I am officially from the old school, and, thus, prone to
generational pet peeves. For one thing, I don’t like long hair on today’s
athletes.
There is nothing less professional and less team-oriented, than seeing
long, stringy hair or dread locks flowing from ‘neath a football helmet. Only
Sampson, Jesus, and my Editor get a pass on this.
Another pet peeve is men (other than catchers) who wear baseball caps
backwards. If I see one more white rapper-wannabe sporting a backwards baseball
cap, I will probably commit murder.
And then there’s the problem of saggy pants which expose underwear of the
male wearer. I don’t care where or how the style originated, it is the
dumbest, most asinine thing I’ve ever seen. But unlike long hair and backwards
caps, saggy pants have given rise to serious controversy and debate.
Last summer, the town of Delcambre, Louisiana made it a crime for a man to
wear saggy pants which revealed his undergarment. The offense carries a $500
fine or up to six months in jail. According to the website Blackademics, one
of Delcambre’s 2,200 residents testified, “you can’t legislate how people
dress, but you can legislate when people become indecent by exposing their
body parts”.
Now, some Triad area folks are jumping on the banning bandwagon. Mattie
Young, a resident of Cleveland Homes has gathered 600 signatures on a petition
which she hopes will persuade the Winston-Salem city council to ban saggy
pants in their altogether. Young told the Winston-Salem Journal the fashion
trend she was fighting was “disrespectful”. Her petition says that citizens
have the right to “be free of this repulsive and unattractive display of
character by the juveniles”.
Politicians are taking these complaints seriously. In addition to
Delcambre, Mansfield, Louisiana and Flint, Michigan have also enacted a ban.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Dallas are taking the matter under advisement.
And the battle is turning nasty. Orlando, who recently made the wearing of
saggy pants illegal, is coming under attack from their local NAACP. The
organization is arguing that criminalizing saggy pants is tantamount to racism.
They are wrong. In fact most of the complainants nationwide are African-American.
Somewhere amidst all the hoopla is a double standard waiting to happen.
After all, men have always been held to a different standard from women.
“R” rated movies frequently display female genitalia, but filmmakers are
not allowed to show full frontal nudity on men. And while we fight over a man’
s right to show his underwear, what will happen to the legions of young
women whose bras purposely poke out from behind their spaghetti strapped tank
tops?
Are saggy pants on a man a threat to society, while provocatively clad women
are not? I guess so, because an Atlanta councilman told Blackademics.org
that the wearing of saggy pants is indicative of a “prison mentality”.
My friend Scott Sexton, a columnist for the Winston-Salem Journal after
speaking with an anonymous source on the police force, concluded that enacting
bans on saggy pants means that law enforcement will turn into baby sitters,
spending their time busting boxer short exhibitionists rather than hunting down
drug dealers and murderers. He has a point. But so too, do adults who are
offended by the trend in saggy britches. And so do defenders of the obnoxious
fashion as an expression of free speech.
I can’t be objective because my advanced age and upbringing have colored my
view on what is and is not considered appropriate attire. When I was
growing up, men who attended baseball games wore white shirts and ties. You also
never removed your jacket in church or anywhere else inside, no matter how hot
the room temperature became. And you dressed up to ride planes, go to
movies, and when meeting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time. It was
all a matter of respect for our women and our elders, something most male
youth of today have none of for either.
Still, making saggy pants a crime is going a bit too far. Instead we
should order every school district to institute a uniform dress code (like most
private Academies still do). The result can be less emphasis on class
structure, less fighting, and a sharper focus by students on academics. In that
sense, the public schools will simply be teaching good manners and providing an
environment which is more conducive to learning.
So let’s start dealing with this matter rationally, and stop giving these
kids the “bum’s rush” into the criminal justice system.
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