Saggy pants are obscene

[Edward]

Just a couple days ago, I saw a young man wearing baggy pants with the top below his bottom.

I see that a lot. I really don't get it.... okay, taste and ideas of what looks good are very subjective, but surely it must be downright uncomfortable to dress like that? I've never tried it, but my guess would be you'd end up waddling like a little penguin with the crotch of the trousers near your knees.... kind of like MC Hammer, but much more uncomnfortable for having the belt around your upper thigh!

I am well aware of the prison origins, but I do wonder is designer underwear the reason for this trend making it to the mainstream fashion market? you know - "I've paid so many bucks for these CKs, I'm damn well gonig to make sure everyone knows I'm wearing them!!"

 

[Fletch]

How about this: No fine, just an on-the-spot weapons search.

(If that poses constitutional difficulties, take 'em back in the alley and give 'em a wedgie. lol)

 

[Empyrium]

Baggy pants...should be banned of the world, also hip hop with its obscene lyrics that corrupt minds of young ppl

 

[Feraud]

It is that darn Rock 'N' Roll I tell ya..

 

[Jerekson]

Thank goodness...I'm so sick of having to see a pair of boxers wherever I go.

Replace all those stupid pants with some high-waisted slacks, for Pete's sake...

 

[MrNewportCustom]

. . . with the crotch of the trousers near your knees.... kind of like MC Hammer, but much more uncomnfortable for having the belt around your upper thigh!"

Belt? They wear a belt? I, personally, haven't seen one wearing a belt. Instead, I see them holding their pants up with the left hand. I guess that's because the right hand is needed to hold the weapon of choice while holding up the 7-11.

Tell me I'm being stereotypical, but I have yet to see someone wearing their pants that way who didn't look like he had a rap sheet longer than his arm.



Lee

 

[5thprofession47]

Hi Folks,

Many of the defendants who come into my court wear their pants this way and they are generally the macho gangsta types. I often wonder if they knew the origins of this practice, would they continue dressing as they do.

You see, I have been told by some very credible former inmates that the practice of wearing one's pants low around the hips began years ago in prison---as a signal of one's availability.

Atticus

This is true. A good friend of mine was a prison guard and he told me that this is exactly where this came from.

 

[dr greg]

exactly

I've always wondered about exactly that: and really, if you had been to prison, you wouldn't advertise the fact if you had any hope of not returning there. Then again, in my experience, you can't tell young people anything, thay have to find it out the hard way.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

There are some teenage boys in our neighborhood who live in a suspected drug house and they wear their pants down to, well, wayyyy down. I watch them walking up the street and they do walk like penguins, or at least like Chaplin in one of his "Little Tramp" movies sans the cane.

I cannot fathom why they would dress to hinder themselves like that, but, throughout the history of costume men and women have worn fashions at times that certainly must have hampered them.

karol

 

[Benny Holiday]

I'm told it's more fun to see such depantsing done by a Marine in full dress blues "accidentally" just "happening" to step on the dragging cuff...lol

The transition from "what [unmentionable] did this to me?!" to "Umm, oops..." must be a Kodak moment for sure, for me it's just gotta remain an amusing mental picture... There was some comment about this over on the LawDog Files blog a while back, which is my source.

Reminds me of an incident a few years ago when I dropped into a 7-11 with a buddy of mine who was a Leading Seaman in the Royal Australian Navy at the time (he's now posted to Western Australia and is a Petty Officer). He's 6 ft 4 inches tall and built like a bulldozer, and always loved a good scrap. As we walked through the carpark, which was full of young hoons of the saggy pants and ballcap variety just loitering about, doing their best to look intimidating, my buddy passes one of their cars that featured a "Bad Boy" sticker on the back window. Smiling evilly, he walked around the car to the character leaning against the driver's door, and said, "This your car, mate?"

The guy, who was in his early 20s, maybe a couple of years younger than us, said, "Yeah," all attitude and pride.

My buddy says, "So you're a bad boy, huh? You reckon you're badder than me?"

You've never seen ten struttin', swearing, spitting, would-be macho tough guys turn paler and start shaking quicker in your life. As the hoon tried to stammer his way out of the situation while doing his best to squirm through the open car window, my buddy said, "Nah, I didn't think so," and stalked off into the 7-11 to get a soda. It was very funny lark at the time and still makes me laugh.

Of course, on the flip-side, my pal and one of his Navy mates once got drunk at a gig I was doing, got into a fight with some other patrons, belted them and then cleaned the bouncers up and got my band barred from the place because the management thought they were in the band (the other sailor helped my drummer carry his kit in at the beginning of the night, so they thought he was one of us!). Oh well, you can't have it both ways . . .

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I was talking with a friend who is in the roofing business last night and he told me about how one of those kids with the droopy pants couldn't work with both hands because he had to hold his pants up. lol

 

[ScionPI2005]

Hi Folks,

Many of the defendants who come into my court wear their pants this way and they are generally the macho gangsta types. I often wonder if they knew the origins of this practice, would they continue dressing as they do.

You see, I have been told by some very credible former inmates that the practice of wearing one's pants low around the hips began years ago in prison---as a signal of one's availability.

Atticus

Very interesting to learn...maybe someone should share that with these 'gangsta' types?....NAH!

 

[Jerekson]

To tell you the truth I could never imagining dressing in such a ridiculously exposing and hindering manner...I mean, hell, they (the low-panted hooligans)probably all think we dress ridiculously, but at least we have some class.

They don't need to stare at our asses whenever we walk away...

 

[Edward]

Belt? They wear a belt? I, personally, haven't seen one wearing a belt. Instead, I see them holding their pants up with the left hand. I guess that's because the right hand is needed to hold the weapon of choice while holding up the 7-11.

Tell me I'm being stereotypical, but I have yet to see someone wearing their pants that way who didn't look like he had a rap sheet longer than his arm.



Lee

Yeah, over here they need to use a belt. No Second Amendment, see, so they have to use both hands to thump their victims into submission...

 

[nightandthecity]

Reminds me of an incident a few years ago when I dropped into a 7-11 with a buddy of mine who was a Leading Seaman in the Royal Australian Navy at the time (he's now posted to Western Australia and is a Petty Officer). He's 6 ft 4 inches tall and built like a bulldozer, and always loved a good scrap. As we walked through the carpark, which was full of young hoons of the saggy pants and ballcap variety just loitering about, doing their best to look intimidating, my buddy passes one of their cars that featured a "Bad Boy" sticker on the back window. Smiling evilly, he walked around the car to the character leaning against the driver's door, and said, "This your car, mate?"

The guy, who was in his early 20s, maybe a couple of years younger than us, said, "Yeah," all attitude and pride.

My buddy says, "So you're a bad boy, huh? You reckon you're badder than me?"

You've never seen ten struttin', swearing, spitting, would-be macho tough guys turn paler and start shaking quicker in your life. As the hoon tried to stammer his way out of the situation while doing his best to squirm through the open car window, my buddy said, "Nah, I didn't think so," and stalked off into the 7-11 to get a soda. It was very funny lark at the time and still makes me laugh.

Of course, on the flip-side, my pal and one of his Navy mates once got drunk at a gig I was doing, got into a fight with some other patrons, belted them and then cleaned the bouncers up and got my band barred from the place because the management thought they were in the band (the other sailor helped my drummer carry his kit in at the beginning of the night, so they thought he was one of us!). Oh well, you can't have it both ways . . .

umm...so there's a group of young lads hanging out in the street minding their own business when a professional warrior tries to pick a fight with them without any apparent provocation......the same guy is given to starting fights in dance halls, "cleaning up" the security staff etc....all this is supposed to be "a lark". Meanwhile others here gloat over a series of alleged "debaggings" i.e. assaults on young men who choose to dress differently from themselves.

I can't wait for you all to start whineing next time some drunk thinks its "a lark" to lift off your fedora, or dares to comment on your weird antique clothes.........

 

[K.D. Lightner]

...Maybe they want us to stare at their asses when they walk away.

It is the sort of "comment" one might expect from them.

karol

 

[Diamondback]

Meanwhile others here gloat over a series of alleged "debaggings" i.e. assaults on young men who choose to dress differently from themselves.

Well, sir, for me it's only funny when the baggy pants are accompanied by the "thug" attitude, if that reassures you any.

 

[Feraud]

I think the point made by nightandthecity is being missed.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I think the point made by nightandthecity is being missed.

Of course it is.....much like numerous threads of this nature reveal.

 

[Dr Doran]

OK, how about these rules as a compromise:

1. We will not encourage our huger friends to pick fights with people or fight people.

2. Yet we will respect the right to feel contempt for, and make fun of in private, styles we find horrid, without expressing that contempt through violence or threat.

3. In other words, we will refrain from threats or violence and discourage our friends from engaging in same, while at the same time retaining our sense of taste and NOT surrendering to a shapeless belief that all tastes are subjective and everyone's sartorial sense is just as good as everyone else's.

Is that fair?