Sep
17
Source: Newsvine
Proposals to ban saggy pants are starting to ride up in several places. At the extreme end, wearing pants low enough to show boxers or bare buttocks in one small Louisiana town means six months in jail and a $500 fine. A crackdown also is being pushed in Atlanta. And in Trenton, getting caught with your pants down may soon result in not only a fine, but a city worker assessing where your life is headed.
Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: I am against the baggy, show-your-boxers pants style that has emerged in general society. At the same time, though, I am against the idea that you could write a law banning this kind of apparel. Showing your underwear is a clear lack of class and I think that at the least people should stop doing that. There’s nothing that the law should be able to do about baggy pants, though.
What probably offends me most is that getting a violation in Trenton results in a “city worker assessing where your life is headed”. What? Why would you judge by the way someone looks that they need some sort of assessment? This style of dress (which is no doubt distasteful, to reiterate my personal stand) has gotten a bad name and association, and because of that, it is now assumed that if you dress like this you have some sort of problem. I think that’s wrong. I have seen people with spiked hair, loads of body piercing, and dyed hair. Should we assess where their lives are headed too? Or should we just call them normal? Should we assess a woman who wears a skirt so short that when she bends over she shows her underwear? Or is she normal too?
This proposed law, is bad, unjust, and sets a double standard. You cannot dictate such a thing unless you dictate it for every distasteful dress, and let’s face it: everyone’s offended by something slightly different. Once again, I repeat that I do not like the overly baggy pants that reveal one’s boxers, but you can’t just outlaw it like that. This is the job of the parents and the society to tell the kids that wearing things like this is wrong. The government has no say and should remain out of it.