Normally, I save the non-political posts for the weekends, but I cannot refrain from commenting on something I recently saw: A young man wearing short pants so low that his beltline hit below his crotch. He kept a long t-shirt tucked into the pants. I presume that hidden safety pins kept the shirt in place.
Now, this is not the first time I've seen such a thing. In fact, the first time was more than ten years ago. And that's my point.
It used to be that stupid clothing fads had a predictable life-cycle. In 1970, you could see hippie wanna-bes wearing ultra-wide bell-bottoms and love beads. By the time The Exorcist hit movie theaters, that look was over: The human race had progressed to other stupidities. Back in the day, young people cycled in and out of novel forms of visual inanity about once every year. Two years, max. Faddists may have been ninnies, but at least they understood the shock of the new.
But the sagging pants thing -- which is, let's face it, the stupidest clothing craze in all human history -- has been around since the early 1990s, or so sayeth Wikipedia. Very soon, the fad will be some twenty years old. Twenty years old.
What the fuck, man? Why won't this thing die?
(Yeah, goth chicks have been around even longer. But goth chicks are hot.)
23 comments:
Hooray for Goth chicks! May that fad remain undead.
I remember that 'Our Gang' and 'The Little Rascals' from the 1930s had ill-fitting, over sized clothes, but it was because they were POOR. They wore hand-me-downs and whatever they could get.
Why anyone would deliberately present themself as so poverty-stricken as to wear Daddy's cut-off pants, I don't know.
Later, this style of oversize pants came from prisons, where 'one-size-fits-all'.
Why anyone would deliberately present themself as a prison convict, I don't know.
Why anyone would deliberately present themself as too damned stupid to know what size pants to purchase or how to keep one's pants up, I don't know.
I thought it was a prison fad that said that a young man was "available" to other men...
wonder if those kids know that?
Baggy low-riding pants (that treat the unsuspecting to unpleasant views of butt cracks) have stuck around - just like low-ride pants for girls - because young people today are F A T.
This look hides the obesity of a generation or let's them rationalize why they have flab hanging over their "waist" lines because they have to keep the pants tight to keep them up.
I am soooooo very tempted to turn around and yank hard on some of these pants, just to see what happens.
In my experience, it is thin guys who wear their pants that low. And "low riding" is a term for guys who keep their beltline low but above the penis. Saggers go even lower.
Interesting that you should bring this up, because yesterday I saw exactly the same get-up on a young black man at the grocery store. Do these young people have any idea how stupid they look?
grayslady
Recently, I fell in behind a teenaged couple walking down my street. I noticed that the boy was struggling to walk and I thought to myself, "poor kid, so young, such a shame". As I gained on them, I saw that he was a Sagger. The fucking crotch was at his knees. As I passed by them, I turned and said to him, "pull yer pants up, fercrissakes!" I couldn't help it.
juststoppingby
I find it more than strange that the guys who like to show their butts this way get so bent out of shape when a gay guy checks out their cracks. Most of them seem to be such homophobes, but go out of their way to invite the appraisal of their posteriors. I don't get it.
Joe, another exsample is Rap. It's the " lastest' music and it's nearly 30 years old. I think part of the problem is the corporate state doesn't allow any new stuff in ...and kids seem so hooked up to it ,they don't bring trends they might creat to the fore.
"Baggy low-riding pants (that treat the unsuspecting to unpleasant views of butt cracks) have stuck around - just like low-ride pants for girls - because young people today are F A T.
This look hides the obesity of a generation or let's them rationalize why they have flab hanging over their "waist" lines because they have to keep the pants tight to keep them up."
Actually, that's not true. Oversize clothing makes one look fatter. People who have less than svelte figures actually look better in well-fitting clothes with design lines that minimize the lumps. The cable show, What Not To Wear, has successfully upgraded the image of many people who have less than perfect bodies in their makeovers.
Why young people are doing this? Part of it may be cultural (alas poor Opera, I knew him well) or it may just be laziness.
I like this explanation: The sagging-pants look is rooted in jails, where belts are confiscated. Furloughed toughs than popularized the look on the streets.
But here's a fad that truly won't die: blue jeans. Work clothes designed for miners and farmers in the 19th century, woven of coarse material that needs to be "broken in," blue jeans have been the de facto uniform of young urban non-conformists for more than half a century. Show me a kid who spurns blue jeans, and I'll show you a real rebel.
I've been sagging for a while but it has nothing to do with my pants.
Joseph - I think I live in an area where obesity is rampant - actually everyone seems to be overweight - but particularly the kids...baggers or saggers.
Annie, you hit upon the point precisely. It's not that I'm anti-rap or hip-hop, even though I do find them annoying. What pisses me off is that kids have not thought of any NEW ways to annoy me. It's been nothing but rap for three decades. Cah-MON, where's the creativity?
Creativity went out the window along with a classical education.
Saw, or heard, something recently re the fad and law enforcement.
Police allegedlyconsider the pants to be an asset to them, when it comes to "runners".
Hard to run while holding pants up with at least one hand. Spoils the rhythm, and, of course, it is all over when the drop occurs.
OT, but need to say:
Welcome back! A bit late in expressing such, however, first time I have commented since your return.
Your excellent, eclectic, blog is my first read each day. So needless to say, the days you were away did not start off too well.
Better now, Thanks!
Here's a site I like: 'The Problem With Young People Today Is...'
Affronts to Old People #4: Irresponsible and Ludicrous First Names
One thing that really grinds an old folk’s gears is this damned stupid habit that young people have adopted of giving their children flashy and irresponsible first names.
When I was a lad there 7 choices for boys names and 9 for girls. Naming a child was a simple affair. When you popped out of the womb and were taken to your old dad, he’d take a deep puff on his cigar, give you a good stare and say “Looks like a Dick to me.”
And, bingo, you had your name. It may not have been “original” but if nothing else you knew that there would be 10 other Dicks just like you on your street.
But today, my God! Everyone names their nasty sprogs after perfumes and automobiles and months of the year. The parks are overflowing with snot-faced urchins running around with droopy diapers and million dollar handles like “December”, “Chanel”, “Mercedes” or worse.....
http://crabbyoldfart.wordpress.com/
Like those in tail-fins [then] and spoilers [now] on cars, styles in baggy-pantedness (pant bagosity?) have tended toward the extreme. Allegedly, though, the trend for wearing a low-slung pair of loose-fitting jeans originated in said garment's abilities, first, better to conceal a handgun tucked beneath the waistband and, second, to establish the wearer as someone with a need for best-of-breed, weapons-concealment apparel.
Maz, I don't know how one would go about concealing a gun in a pair of basketball shorts worn with the waistline of the garment hugging the thighs. At any rate, the kids who affect that style -- they don't exactly look intimidating. Hell, I could take 'em.
The baggy pants thing began because black kids were poor and either had to wear 'hand-me-downs' from their older siblings or buy irregular/odd sizes...first suburban white kids imitated them ("black kids are doing it, so it must be cool, right?"), then more affluent black kids did it in order to fake being "from the 'hood." Manufacturers caught onto this, and after some slight redesigns (smaller waists, for example) relabelled these as trendy "baggy" pants (after a huge markup, of course). As for "saggy" pants, that came later...except in that case, the manufacturers didn't even need to redesign them.
Annie, as far as music types, emo and electronica - to name but two examples - are a lot younger than rap.
Sergei Rostov
Perhaps, with each generation, the collective IQ of Americans is decreasing?
You might have to go overseas.
http://www.moscow.ucla.edu/
Plenty to annoy you here, though some of it is isn't.
--Jay
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