Fashion Police
I am a very liberal but old-fashioned guy in many ways. I still believe in the institution of marriage and what it stands for, I attend church in the old traditional churches (split along the Anglican/Catholic/Orthodox lines) rather than the infinitely hyper and hugely entertaining Pentecostal churches. I also consider myself largely tolerant of views and practices other than mine. In this vein, I am very tolerant of people who choose to adopt new cultures and values like guys piercing their ears, gals with pierced noses and/or people with a different sexual orientation other than mine.
After that small intro I hope that when you read the next few lines, you will agree that I am not an old geek or intolerant conservative trying to be negative about a new style or culture. ‘Pants dropping’, ‘underpants expose’ or ‘balance’ (as is commonly known by young people) is a craze that has mystified me. A few years back all the little gals around town were busy dropping their pants and skirts so that we could see their underwear; a number of people cried their voices hoarse about this until it eventually tapered off. There is particular moment I remember seeing a young lady who looked like she was in her early 20s going through great effort to ensure that her pair of jeans dropped as below as they could so she could expose her pink underwear – myopic.
Now the pendulum seems to have swung from one end of the gender balance to the other. While I now see a lot of young ladies struggling to keep their under wear covered below their pants or blouses, young blokes are engaging in this abysmal act of ‘dropping their pants’. Trouble is while most of the under wear exposed by the ladies was a tolerable scene, I am increasingly getting troubled by the unwashed or over worn Tommy Hilfiger under wear that is being exposed by these young men.
I have been reliably informed that this fashion or culture (or whatever you may wish to call it) originated from US jails. Young black men who had been to jail and had been dressed in loosely fitting uniforms (thus the ‘dropping pants’) continued to dress in big pants on return to their ghettos. And before long this was adopted as style that found its way in our living rooms through the R n B videos of MTV and Channel O. Do any of our young men emulating this style know it’s origins and do they care?
After that small intro I hope that when you read the next few lines, you will agree that I am not an old geek or intolerant conservative trying to be negative about a new style or culture. ‘Pants dropping’, ‘underpants expose’ or ‘balance’ (as is commonly known by young people) is a craze that has mystified me. A few years back all the little gals around town were busy dropping their pants and skirts so that we could see their underwear; a number of people cried their voices hoarse about this until it eventually tapered off. There is particular moment I remember seeing a young lady who looked like she was in her early 20s going through great effort to ensure that her pair of jeans dropped as below as they could so she could expose her pink underwear – myopic.
Now the pendulum seems to have swung from one end of the gender balance to the other. While I now see a lot of young ladies struggling to keep their under wear covered below their pants or blouses, young blokes are engaging in this abysmal act of ‘dropping their pants’. Trouble is while most of the under wear exposed by the ladies was a tolerable scene, I am increasingly getting troubled by the unwashed or over worn Tommy Hilfiger under wear that is being exposed by these young men.
I have been reliably informed that this fashion or culture (or whatever you may wish to call it) originated from US jails. Young black men who had been to jail and had been dressed in loosely fitting uniforms (thus the ‘dropping pants’) continued to dress in big pants on return to their ghettos. And before long this was adopted as style that found its way in our living rooms through the R n B videos of MTV and Channel O. Do any of our young men emulating this style know it’s origins and do they care?
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