Baggy Pants:
Several cities are now banning baggy pants which are worn in such a way to display under shorts or bare portions of ass. It is probably fair to say that a clear majority of people find this kind of dress offensive. Banning these pants is not going to cause the collapse of our society, as opposed to the legalized policies of the Bush administration. In that sense I guess the pants can be banned to keep the majority happy.
I admit to a certain hesitancy to regulate dress codes. I can see the reason on a job where you want all the employees to look a certain way to the public. Off the job is of course a different story. Like everyone else I find certain modes of dress unpleasing to my eyes. Those turbans look ridiculous to me. Wrap around attire(male or female) that looks like you are wrapped in a sheet is an eyesore to me. Practically any kind of attire on a really obese person is a good eyesight to be overlooked. I didn't use the word offensive here because that word implies to me that somehow something about my own personage is being compromised or assaulted by these unpleasant sights. Frankly, after about 50 yrs of age most people are an eyesore, certainly on a comparative basis. Someone once remarked that after the age of 50 everyone has the face they deserve. Maybe after 50 yrs of age a person should have to appear in public with a bag over their head. Then there are the real ugly. Ok, am not going to go there. One thing is for certain: I am not walking around in public with baggy pants half way down my ass. I think even these young ass exhibitionists would find this offensive. Or at least hilarious. When I see real obese women in spandex short summer shorts I find that hilarious.
In the big picture I just wonder on what basis we can ban baggy pants worn at half mast? I saw some kid recently in a store and every 30 seconds he had to pull his pants up after half his ass crack was showing or they would have fallen completely down. When I wander around Chicago I kind of find it interesting to see how different people dress and sometimes how little they are dressed. I don't mind half dressed people if they look good half dressed. No eye sore to me, more some kind of jealousy. I am not sure I would object if they were undressed. It seems to me the vast majority of people want to dress in a way they don't stand out or is fashionable to their group identity. Once, years ago I rounded a corner in Chicago and came face to face with a young nude gal who was followed by a good number of amused fans. I read in the paper the next day that the police came and took her away. I often wondered if she was mentally disturbed or just rebellious or what.
Freedom and justice for all seems to apply, for the most part, to dress. In my lifetime I have never known older people to approve of how a good many young people dress. Some young people are going to find a way to dress which will annoy older people while accentuating, in their mind, their own youthfulness and sexiness. The list is endless: long hair, body part rings, tattoos, sexually explicit sayings on teeshirts, form fitting spandex bottoms or tops, etc. Banning baggy pants will just be another challenge for these young people to find an even a bigger way to 'offend' older generations. Next might be spandex pants and shirts with no underwear which will detail every part of their body.
Not to worry: I ain't gonna wear spandex anymore than baggy pants half mast. And I am glad the young are not in the majority. I sure as hell would be annoyed if by law I was required to wear baggy pants half mast to satisfy some dress code of such a majority. When I was a kid my parents once gave me this game where you shot from this little gun arrows with suction cups on the end to knock over these little ducks moving across a little stage. The first thing I did was remove the suction cups and shoot the pointed arrows at others. Rather than ban half mast baggy pants maybe we could issue some of these suction cupless pointed arrow guns. If your aim is real good you could shout: "Bulls eye!". Retrieving the arrows for reuse would be illegal for sanitary reasons.
