Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Pull them up?



Saggy pants - the biggest problem in South Dallas? On NPR this morning there was a piece on Dallas Deputy Mayor Dwayne Carraway's campaign to get men to pull their pants up above their boxer shorts. So, is this a waste of time and a potential First Amendment issue, or a needed wake-up call to the low-panted?

Throughout history there have been clothing trends that have offended people. Zoot suits and mini skirts have had their time to scandalize. Since men have been wearing their pants like this for more than 15 years* though, why the campaign now? Even if low pants annoy Carraway and to Dooney Da' Priest, who just recorded "Pull Your Pants Up," (listen here), who is being harmed by low pants? I suppose if you get all tangled in your pants and trip you could hurt yourself, but that seems unlikely. Theoretically, really low pants could entangle passer-by, creating a domino effect throughout the shopping districts of South Dallas wherein many people are comically knocked over, but that has to be a long shot. Let's get back to important issues, like whether Britney has visitation rights this week.

Update - I called my dad, who was a high school teacher in an urban district for 30 years, to see if he could recall an incident of any kind related to people wearing low pants. As one could guess, there weren't any. He did say that in his experience "Dress codes in general are a loser, and trying to be the style police doesn't work." So there you go.

*I'm dating myself, but when I started junior high in 1990, there were guys wearing....wait for it....really low pants.

7 comments:

Judy said...

Dude, I graduated from college in 91 and was married in 92! You make me feel so OLD!

Jeremy said...

How could this be a first amendment issue?

"By wearing my pants low, I'm expressing my freedom to look like a jackass."

Point taken.

I could probably spend hours debating this issue - but ya know what, I don't really want to - because I have more important things to waste taxpayer money on, like limos and strippers.

Laura said...

I guess the issue for some is the stereotype that seems to be associated with the wearing of the pants below the arse. I have seen security guards at malls around here asking guys to pull up their pants. Now while I'm not against them pulling their pants up, I feel that if they want to, they will. They know how stupid they look. It's funny though because I've heard that these guys go to great lengths to color-coordnate their layers (yes, layers) of boxer shorts.

P.S. I guess I'm the youngest so far...started high school in '93.

Laura said...

Oh wait, I guess I can't read...Jon said JUNIOR high, not high school! Looks like we started at the same time.

Jonathan said...

One of the great things about living here is that however people think it looks, this is America and you have the right to wear your pants as low as you want, just like I have the right to wear the stupid looking belt buckle in the picture.

Shouldn't the role of a security guard be to keep people and property safe, not to tell people to pull up their pants? I'm about to start sagging in support.

Laura said...

Don't you dare or I'll fly out there to personally give you a wedgie! Hahaha, just kidding...I'll have Lauren do it. I used to do that to my brother when his pants sagged (unintentionally).

Anonymous said...

You know I have not seen people wearing really sagging pants in a long time. I'm pretty sure this was going out of style some time ago, but now that "the man" has spoken out against it you can all but be guaranteed that this is going to come back even stronger. There is no better way to make something "cool" than to have those in power tell you not to do it. I do find it interesting in all this that it was Deputy Mayor Dwayne Carraway's campaign and not the campaign of the Mayor, Tom Leppert. Leppert is white and Carraway is black.

As for the timing of all this, I would guess that it is because the other extremely important issues like Mexicans, flag burning, abortion, gay marriage, and skull f**king are no longer driving a wedge with black americans in order to keep their minds off the $10billion a month war. Especially now that it is an estimated 10 year war of $2.4 trillion and we still see cities like Detroit, Flint, Toledo, etc. falling into deeper recession.

Viva La Raza. I'm out.