Baggy Pants - Harmless Fad, Evidence of Evil, Teen Rebellion or Indication of a Lost Generation

When I was in high school, back in the day, we did not affect clothing or grooming styles that were out of sync with those of our parents. Since I lived a life in a small city north of Boston, I asked the Lovely Joan, who was raised in the shadows of New York City -- thus being exposed to a much less rigid culture - if her friends and she wore clothes and hair in a manner that, intentionally or serendipitously, managed to annoy teachers, adults generally, and, specifically, parents.

Her response was that these were issues that never came up. There were rules of which everyone was familiar. Girls wore skirts or dresses to school and changed into jeans after classes. Guys wore shirts and slacks to school, usually shirts with collars.

By the time our daughters were in high school, boys were letting hair grow long and some young people were starting to adopt "grunge". High school girls attracted boys and annoyed parents by wearing min-skirts. For the most part, it was generally accepted that the teens would, someday, eventually, grow up and adapt to the adult world.

We have now come to the point where young men, in particular, have adopted the culture, clothes and language of young African-American males; those individuals are adopting as role models inmates in prison. It is the latter point that creates the problem.

While there is some controversy as to the sources of the new "fashion", baggy pants worn so loosely that they perch somewhere well below the waist, exposing, usually, decorative boxer shorts, most believe it comes from prison inmates. Bill Maxwell, writing in the St. Petersburg Times, suggests an alternative origin derived from slavery times. Some white masters would rape their African male slaves; subsequently, the victims were forced to wear their pants sagging so that their masters could identify them for future attacks. According to Mr. Maxwell, dehumanized black slaves wearing sagging pants were said to be announcing that they were available for their white masters. Over time, the style became a little-talked-about subculture that seeped into general black culture.

The other version says the fashion developed in prison among black convicts. Judge Greg Mathis, host of a television program, said in Jet Magazine, "In prison you aren't allowed to wear belts to prevent self-hanging or the hanging of others. . . [Inmates] take off the belt and sometimes your pants hang down. ... Many cultures of the prison have overflowed into the community unfortunately. ... Those who pulled their pants down the lowest and showed their behind a little more, that was an invitation. [The youth] don't know this part about it. I always tease and tell them that they better be careful because some man who has been in prison 30 years who comes home and doesn't know any difference may think it's an open invitation."

The issue of drooping drawers, as it were, has become a major area of controversy, to the point that school districts throughout the country are adapting school dress codes to combat the "problem". To prove that this issue is not wholly male, these same codes address females whose bra straps show.

Schools are not the only place where baggy low drooping pants are an issue. Two Louisiana towns, Delcambre and Kinder, have taken action. Both ordinances state, "It shall be unlawful for any person in any public place or in view of the public to be found in a state of nudity, or partial nudity, or in dress not becoming to his or her sex, or in any indecent exposure of his or her person or undergarments, or be guilty of any indecent or lewd behavior."

With a population of 2,500, it's easy to spot saggy pants in Kinder. When Kinder Mayor Estes LeDeoux decided he had seen enough droopy pants in 2003, not many spoke out against his proposal to ban them.

"We didn't have any controversy over the matter," LeDeoux said, "The chief and I got together to draw up the ordinance, and there was nothing else said about it. We never had any problems at all."

Kinder officials said they have not had to issue any citations over its ordinance, but officials in Delcambre stated they have issued "a few."

The city of Brazoria, Texas, is considering a ban as are the cities of Los Angeles and Atlanta, in spite of critics who suggest the proposals are specifically designed to crack down (please excuse the bad pun) on youth, and particular, African-American culture. There is, without question, a racial aspect to this focus on a clothing fad.

OK, so what is the difference between the teen fads of old and the wearing of goofy fitting pants or the wearing of baseball caps sideways or backwards or dancing while grasping body parts that were once grasped only in private? In motion pictures and television programs African-Americans hold pistols at a 90° angle or make strange obtuse gestures, thrusting hands forward, and fingers spread apart, pointing horizontally. Why is this behavior so disturbing and why do so many commentators decry it? It may be more than racism and many African-Americans agree.

Judge Mathis explains, "Young people have given up on society as a result of the obstacles they face. Instead of fighting back, they join the subculture of drugs and crime as a means of what they believe will uplift them from poverty. So you have this [interchange] of what is cool and hip in the 'hood and what is hip and cool in prison. You have a revolving door. ... I want to challenge our brothers to pull up their pants and lift up their head. ... We're no longer slaves. We are free to fight back, and that's what we must do."

But it's not only African-Americans. As Mr. Maxwell notes, "In fact, an increasing number of white, Hispanic and Korean males are adopting saggin'. The reality, of course, is that these white, Hispanic and Korean youngsters know when it's time to grow up and put away their unsavory low-slung wear. Not so with too many young black males, who never grow up. They go to their untimely graves saggin'."