The worst thing happened to me the other day...
As I was watching my 15-month-old son run, jump, climb and throw things all over the house, I started to catch myself losing my patience and saying things like "No. Stop. Don't do that, Son. Leave it. Down. Get down right now. Put that back. Don't eat that. Icky. Gimme' back my phone. Son... Gimme' back my phone! Don't throw it in the toilet! Dont-"
"Splash..."
It was then I looked in the mirror and realized with great anxiety that my son has become me. And worse still: "Oh my god, I've become my parents." Mom's revenge come full circle...
I figure it's only a matter a time before I starting yelling things like "These kids today!" "Do you know what time it is?" "No, I don't have any money!" "You call that music?! That's just a bunch of noise!"
Is there any reasonable issue I can confront a young person with and not look like a crazy person who's wandered from the old folks home without my medication because someone left the gate open?
No? Well, if that's the case, then you might as well stop reading now because I absolutely, positively HATE the way you wear your pants!!!
I recently learned from a retired, grade-school teacher who works with inner-city kids that the "ass-crack, coin-slot" fashion was originated in prison.
When an inmate was the sexual property of another inmate or street gang, he was forced to wear his pants below his waist to a) show others that he was taken; and b) prevent him running away when his owners were feeling a bit randy. Contrary to what you're thinking, I am NOT making light of the issue of rape. And this is exactly what this fashion statement was intended to allow: The violent rape of prison inmates.
Which begs me to ask the question: Why does MTV support such a fashion statement and why are teenagers and COLLEGE KIDS also supporting such a statement?
When I brought it up to a local, male college student, I started out by asking him: "Nice pants... Are you someone's bitch?"
"Excuse me?"
"Are you someone's bitch? Cause' if you are, that's fine. I don't want to judge. But if you're not, why do you insist on letting the rest of the world think that you are?"
To which he had no answer.
Maybe I should keep asking the question until I finally GET an answer. In the meantime, turn off the damn lights when you leave! And close the door for the God's sake!! Were you raised in a barn??!!
Excellent post! As a 16yo girl, I personally find it revolting when I see guys with their pants too low. Like jeez, you have decent underwear, but I really don't care to see it. I just can't stand it and I bug any of my guy friends who wear baggy pants about it. O:-)
RESPECT LIFE
http://progressiveu.org/blog/respectlife
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
Interesting. I had always heard that the wearing of big pants stemmed form gangs. Gangs usually have guns and need places to hide them. The big saggy britches were to conceal the weapon that weight them down. That was my understanding of things and now Violent gang things are, for some reason, popular.
There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.~- Anais Nin
The baggy look was (and still is) a useful way for gangbangers to conceal weapons, dope, money, you name it. However, the saggy ass-crack didn't become popular until 1998, when a rush of new ex-cons and ex-juvenile offenders were back on the street wearing their clothes the same way they did when they were incarcerated. When Tupac started mimicking his cohorts on album covers and music videos, it suddenly became a fashion statement. Which truly hurts because I'm one of the biggest Tupac fans out there... For an old bastard anyway...
I like things that bring into people's awareness the origin of idiotic behavior. People wear their pants that way to make an associative statement.
What your blog is really saying to me is that slavery consciousness still exists, and people choose to stay in bondage. Whether they are slaves to gangs, prisons, or fashion, they are still slaves.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
Never knew that one at all..but learn something new everyday. Most kids though of course don't see it as "being someone's bitch". lol they see it as doing the cool thing and what their friends are doing. Most people fall into that mold at least once in their life of trying to fit it. I really liked this post though and I agree. My guy friends used to do this and I would pull their pants up for them.
Come to the darkside....we have cookies ;)
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/50086-%E2%80%9Ctaxi-darkside%E2%80%9D-u...