You are in:
- Archives » 2007 » August 2007
Fines For Baggy Trousers
Several US towns appear to be seriously considering laws to ban the wearing of trousers which reveal the wearer's undergarments.
First on the "Twinned with Kabul" list is Delcambre, Louisiana (pop 2,321) where since June 11, "saggy pants" have been against the law. Anyone wearing their trousers low enough to expose their underwear can face a $500 fine or six months behind bars.
Citizens of Mansfield (pop 5,496) face fines of up to $150 plus costs and 15 days in jail if they are caught wearing the offending garments after September 15. Supporters of the law and police chiefs talk of the need to project a proper civil image: The laws are written as amendments to their town's indecency laws.
Shreveport has just voted to introduce a similar law, subject to the Mayor's approval. Likewise Alexandria City Council, which allows for a certain amount of "sag" in its ordinance - up to three inches, apparently - but if this limit is crossed, fines of up to $200 and community service awaits.
According to AP, at least six towns have, or are close to having, such legislation on their books. Another two cities are considering introducing similar laws, including Atlanta.
In Stratford, Connecticut, councillors threw out a proposed law making sagging trousers an offence.
According to the New York Times, the new laws follow a failed statewide campaign to outlaw sagging pants in Louisiana.
There are obvious civil liberties concerns with such laws. How would the be enforced? One critic asked if Shreveport was going to have a "sagging court." Others wondered if the police had nothing better to do than pursue youngsters in objectional clothes. Don't youngsters have a right to self-expression? Most of the time they are wearing designer boxer shorts with lurid labels - they are not exactly exposing their behinds to the good people of the towns.
Moreover, critics point to a murky racist aspect to some of the laws, despite the fact that some of its most prominent supporters (in Atlanta, at least) are black. The style is mainly popular with young black men, who associate it with hip-hop music. It is said to have sprung from prisons, where inmates are sometimes denied belts, though some hip-hop spokesmen deny this link.
Like previous fashions for low-cut trousers and exposed "Calvin Klein" waistbands, it has become exaggerrated on the street. In many cases, trousers are held up with a belt that sits below the bottom, and the wearer needs to hold his trousers up with a hand.
The New York Times has a look at how youth fashions have offended town elders in the past. The report notes that supporters of the ban argue less against the exposure of underwear as the fact that the style is "a badge of delinquency".
Similiar worries were voiced in Europe recently. In Britain, following a spate of robberies, muggings and shoplifting sprees, a number of shopping centres banned "hoodies" - the hooded sweatshirts favoured by Britain's mugging fraternity. Some locals complained that hoodies were as much a part of British casual dress as jeans, and that not everyone who wore one was a mugger.
French and Italian headmasters have also complained last year about young girls wearing low cut trousers exposing navels and thongs in school: In Italy, one head teacher tried to have the style banned from school. However, as most state schools in Europe no longer demand that children wear uniform, it is difficult to enforce dress codes.
The sagging pants style seems to have crossed the Atlantic. Your correspondent has noticed it several times in London and Paris, though it must be noted that in these cases, the underwear exposed was not that of young black hip-hop fans but by middle-class white boys. Indeed, if similar indecency laws were introduced in Europe, EURSOC can think of at least one London plumber and one Paris mechanic who could be jailed for the amount of arse cleavage on display when they are at work.
At least the kids in Louisiana are wearing underwear.
Clothing laws have serious implications, too. In France, it is illegal for girls to wear the voile, or Islamic headscarf to school. The wife of Turkey's President-elect Abdullah Gul has caused offence by wearing a headscarf, and there is concern that she will continue to flout the secular tradition when her husband takes office.
It is illegal to wear headscarves in Turkish public buildings and universities: Indeed, the devout children of some senior Turkish politicians are reported to study in universities in the United States, where there is no such dress code.
