Now Why Would I want My Ass Hanging Out???
September 4, 2012.
I saw another guy with sagging pants today.
It wasn't a mistake. For those who are just stepping off Plymouth Rock, sagging pants are still "the style" with the male youth of today. for almost ten years now it seems, belts worn low, just below the waist, showing off a variety of colored boxer shorts are just as "in," as tattoos for young teenagers.
When I say, "young teenagers," I mean of the inner-city type. Although I hear the phenomenon is world-wide now (including with the lead singer of Geen Day), it's usually poor kids or those from a background of poverty, much like my own origin. They seem totally confused about the world and their place in it, largely because nobody sees fit to invest in them. But that's another blog post. To these young ones, low ridin' is cool. I, personally, don't think it's cool at all. But of course, I'm forty now.
Oh, the things I think when I see those sagging pants!
"Follower." "Poor." "Stupid." "Imbecilic." "Retarded." "Naive." "Ignorant." The list goes on...
Nothing good. I basically assume that a guy with sagging pants is broke and can barely read. I can't be the only one who thinks this. It's not just a fashion statement to me, like it is to some peers my age. "It's just the style now," they say, when their kids come around, pants a-sagging away.
I'm not trying to be mean, but, no it's not. It's a fashion statement that says, "I'm a follower." It's like tattooing a teardrop under your eye to show that you belong to a gang of lowlifes, just not as permanent. You may as well sport handcuffs as jewelry and flash welfare cards instead of credit cards.
The style really looks quite ridiculous. A few weeks ago, I saw a kid getting arrested in the subway with sagging pants. Since he was handcuffed, his pants had fallen down to his ankles. During rush hour. How absurd.
Maybe there's truth to the saying that you really don't start getting old until you think the youth are all idiots. C'est la vie. The sad part about it is, it's not all youth that are sportin' sagging pants. And NOTHING is more juvenile, than a grown man doing it.
Judge Greg Mathis, of the TV show bearing his name, is just one of the folks who say that this is a style derived from prison. He says that since prisoners aren't allowed belts, they always walk with their pants sagging. I have heard other rumors that homosexuals sag their pants in prison as sort of a beacon, but that sounds like crap. The possible prison origin of this low ridin' style doesn't surprise me a bit, though.
I too, was influenced by prison, as a teenager. Fat and loose sneaker laces with white-on-white Adidas were my thing and I remember being told the same story with that style. "Prisoners are forced to take their laces from their sneakers," so the story goes.I also remember my dad telling me about my "gumby" haircut some 20 years ago. "White people are laughing at you," he would say. I figured that they were gonna laugh anyway, if they were laughing. Now I realize that he was just embarrassed, and not just because of the white people around. In fact, I hold the same type of embarrassment for the young folk I see looking ridiculous in sagging pants. Even though they are of no blood relation.
Most recently, State Senator Eric Adams started a campaign to convince young folk in New York City to abandon this craze; a campaign covered in the New York Times. "You raise your level of respect, when you raise your pants," he says in his media-attracting video (see video at bottom). It may be true, but it's still HILARIOUS.
Even funnier, Mr. Adams spent $2000 on billboards against the sagging pants style in New York City. So sure, this wasn't a publicity stunt. But the movement was still good for a really funny ad campaign. "Stop The Sag."
Even Barack Obama has chimed in. Brothers should pull up their pants,” he said on MTV . “You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What’s wrong with that? Come on.”
Interestingly enough, a politician-centered movement is JUST THE thing to convince young folk to continue the craze, ironic as it may be. And then there was that very stupid, but very relevant song on American Idol. "Pants on the ground."
Even with all of the corniness of the "anti-sagging" efforts, It's odd to me that this particular pants style, would become popular, or attractive to young ladies. It makes a guy look so very "unemployable" and "broken down" (those words describe it perfectly). My best guess is that these young men are in a search for an identity. Why they would choose to identify with an identity in associated with prison, is something I fail to understand, like trigonometry.
It seems to me that one would want to emulate "ghetto" success stories (as rare as they are) rather than emulating dudes that hang on corners. But again, I'm forty.
I find myself wondering, frequently, what it would take for that style to change. What would it take for these young men to ask themselves,
"Now, why would I want my ass hanging out???"
Maybe if the style became just a little bit older? Like Me?
"Now, why would I want my ass hanging out???"
Maybe if the style became just a little bit older? Like Me?
