Monday, April 14, 2014

bikins and baggy pants


A lot of the issues brought up about sagging pants were families concerned for their children being exposed to peoples bums. It is simply a generational fad, one generation complaining about the new generations risky, provocative, or crude behavior. It is similar to how parents used to complain that their children would be forced to go to school with African Americans. A change in the social standards are always expected. In the 1900’s fashions that showed the ankle were thought as outrageous. Norms change, progress is made and what we complained about yesterday will become commonplace tomorrow. To ban clothing for being too baggy seems like a petty thing to argue about and could lead to more progressive bans. If one generation completely controls the norms of society, it will not progress into the future, even if it is seemingly unimportant as clothing. 
One of the banned areas discussed was on a boardwalk, literally inches away from the beach. A man was quoted complaining about the attire on the boardwalk when families can see bikini clad women and speedo clad males feet away, “You want a family atmosphere here," he said. "You don't want to see someone walking around with their butt crack hanging out. On the beach is one thing, but not here on the boardwalk.” During the summer in sweltering heat while people are there to enjoy themselves in the sun, this man is worried about a bit of butt crack? There is so many other infractions at the beach that he should be more concerned with; socks and sandals, overly sun burned children, the unhealthy fried foods available. The beach is by no means a wholesome family atmosphere, I have seen girls in bathing suits usually reserved for the covers of risky magazines. 
I know my parents complain about baggy pants, their parents complained about men’s long hair, and my grandmother said her mother complained about how girls would hike up their hemlines for their dancing dresses. At one point it was vogue to have separate bathrooms for different races. In Huck Finn gender roles were also so defined that the woman he visited was able to tell he was playing a girl because of the way he threw and the way he caught something with his legs. All of these things have changed, and for the better. Everyone is equal and integrated into schools and no one can even legally ask for separation based on race. Pink toys used to mean girls and blue toys meant boys. Now toys are being made genderless and science and tinker toys do not only target boys. With the progress of society, it is only common that human express that with how they look. If someone sees the progress in society through an expression of baggy pants, then no one can take away their ability to wear their pants like that. 
The 1920s was the beginning of the female liberation, women cut their hair and started wearing pants. It signified a change in values of society and of course, people who wanted to keep the norm would be resistant to the change in attire. As long as someone is in public they should be allow to express themselves in what ever way they see fit. Now on the other hand pertaining to private areas of business they are more than able to put bans on baggy pants. Just as restaurants can refuse service to any one they choose to. That is as much as their right as it is the right to wear baggy pants. 


Tattoos no longer have the same social stigma than they do today. They used to mean you were either a criminal, a soldier, or going no where in life. That has completely changed, tattoos have developed into a way to mark life changing events and the create a story board of art on your skin. Tattooing is an art form and it becoming more respected as such. During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many US troops have collected tattoos that have become personally meaningful to them, “kind of like mile markers in their lives,” Eldridge says. People have adopted the military’s ideas of tattoos holding a significance in the story of one’s own life and the creativity of the tattooers have made it into an art form. 
My grandfather and my mother were having a discussion about tattoos and he was completely against the idea of them. He thought they were pointless and looked trashy. My mother who I had to convince that tattoos were socially acceptable defended them. She herself who now has two small ones is coming around to the idea that tattooing is art. She asked my grandfather who was set in his view that tattoos are gaudy if he knew which one of her three children, his grandchildren had tattoos. He said that none of us would have them. In fact, all three of us have very visible wrist tattoos. We all actually got the same tattoo signifying the bond we all have with each other. He didn’t even notice them. Tattoos aren’t the problem, it’s simply how people think about them. He believed tattoos were ruining people’s bodied, but didn’t even notice when the three of us had such visible ones. Sometimes it is not how people choose to dress or express themselves that is detrimental to society, it is how people perceive those decisions of expression. 

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