I had a sandwich at Subway today and my seat was near the door. One of the patrons left with his buddy and I could hardly believe my eyes. I'm no prude but it turned me off to see the belt line of his jean shorts down to the middle of his thighs. He had boxer shorts on and the top of his jean shorts were level with the crotch of his boxer shorts .
Could someone please enlighten me what keeps them up at that level? I've seen them walking in the mall with their hand holding on to something in the front. I'm now guessing it's to keep their pants from falling all the way down. I suppose that's better than holding their tallywacker in pubic.
I realize this has been a fad for several years but wonder what the root of it is.
It looks like these folks are announcing to people of the opposite sex, "I'm ready for action".
If you are a female does that turn you on?
What's your take?
Len Miller
Waistband of pants down to mid thighs
by Fatfreek 24 Replies latest jw friends
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Fatfreek
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RichieRich
I suppose that's better than holding their tallywacker in pubic.
Freudian slip... LOL.
Rumor has it that sagging pants started as a symbol of homosexual availibility in the prison system- but that isn't the reason for sagging now.
Sadly, like a lot of other things in pop culture, not many people even know why they're doing it.
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betterdaze
I read somewhere that the "fashion" originated in the prison system, where inmates' belts were taken away to prevent them from hanging themselves.
Not only does it look stupid, it emulates convicted criminals?
They're announcing to the opposite sex: "WARNING: Do not breed with me, I'm so stupid/lazy I can't even get dressed."
~Sue -
Scully
First came plumber butt.
Then came MC Hammer with the genie pants and crotch that hangs around the knees.
Then came gangsta butt.
All distasteful. All sending the message that the wearer doesn't give a crap about what you think of it.
Do I think it's sexy? Uh, big NO to that.
I thought the latest trend got started when people were trying to show off their designer underwear. It gives my kid a reason to have a bazillion pairs of boxer briefs with different patterns on them. I noticed recently that he's not wearing his pants that way any more. I didn't have to nag him or anything.... he decided all on his own that it was more important to be desirable to more mature young women than it was to walk around with his jeans' crotch hanging between his knees.
BTW, I heard on the news recently that a young thug's robbery attempt was foiled by him tripping himself up in his low hanging trousers. Unfortunately he was not seriously injured so he did not qualify for a Darwin award.
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BFD
My neighbor across the street has a 17 year old son whose pants are alwalys hanging aroung his thighs. I laugh at him because when he walks he looks like either he's got a huge load of shit in his pants, or he's trying to hold in a big shit. Take your pick.
I never heard about the prison connection and I often wondered why the young 'uns are dressing this way. Interesting.
BFD
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Scully
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06171/699705-84.stm
Low-slung, baggy pants often trip up thieves
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
By Serena Ng, The Wall Street Journal
One sunny afternoon in January, Vicki Chandler, a 55-year-old underwriting associate at Cigna HealthCare in Chattanooga, Tenn., was walking to her car when a teenager in loose khaki pants approached her, pointed to her pocketbook and said, "I need that." As she recounts the incident, he snatched the purse and took off.
But then he ran into trouble. As he ran, his loose trousers slipped down below his hips. As he reached down to hold them up, the teen was forced to throw the purse aside.
"That boy, he could run fast but he got caught up by his pants, which were real big and baggy," says Ms. Chandler, whose purse was retrieved by a parking attendant who had heard her cries for help.
It's a problem for perpetrators. Young men and teens wearing low-slung, baggy pants fairly regularly get tripped up in their getaways, a development that has given amused police officers and law-abiding citizens a welcome edge in the fight against crime.
James Green might have made a clean getaway when he stole seven DVDs from a Blockbuster store in Ferndale, Mich., last October. But he, too, was undone by his baggy pants.
Mr. Green, 30, rode away on a bicycle, with copies of "Donnie Brasco," "The Bourne Identity" and "Sin City." When a patrol car knocked over the bike, he fled on foot. As he ran, his trousers slipped down past his hips, and he tripped. He hitched up his pants and ran a few more yards before falling again.
Things got worse and worse for Mr. Green. He finally kicked off his pants and shoes and "ran into the yard of 1720 Beaufield," police officer Kenneth Jaklic said in a report of the incident. "I ran after (Mr. Green), yelling at him to stop." Instead, Mr. Green jumped over a fence behind a garage, and Mr. Jaklic immobilized him with two Taser darts in the back.
Mr. Green pleaded guilty to charges of resisting arrest and retail fraud and spent 30 days in jail. He could not be located for comment.
Denny Fuhrman, a 58-year-old police officer in Lynnwood, Wash., was escorting a handcuffed suspect to his patrol car one afternoon in 2004 when the youngster twisted free and took off running.
As he bolted, the baggy blue jeans he was wearing fell down around his ankles, sending him tumbling onto the pavement of a busy street. "He was rolling around in traffic, looking like a fish out of water," recalls Mr. Fuhrman.
Mr. Fuhrman's suspect wiggled out of his trousers before getting up from the street and running toward a nearby mall, as the police officer radioed a description to his colleagues: "White male, running, no pants, in handcuffs," Mr. Fuhrman recalls saying. The young man was arrested at the entrance of a J.C. Penney store after Janice Lewis, a 61-year-old passerby, grabbed his shirt collar and held on to him until police arrived.
"He was pretty wild," says Ms. Lewis, a grandmother of 10 who broke a knuckle during the scuffle. "I didn't even realize he was in his underwear till the police flipped him over."
Police declined to release the full name of the youth, identified only as Jason in written reports, because he was not convicted of a crime in connection with the incident. He had been arrested after allegedly trying to access a bank account that wasn't his.
Low-hanging baggy pants have been a fashion statement for young men for more than a decade, inspired by the advent of beltless prison jeans, says Andy Gilchrist, a California fashion consultant who has written a book on men's clothes. Over time, the tough-guy image associated with oversized trousers helped make the look standard for hip-hop performers, alternative music bands, skateboarders and snowboarders as it migrated from mostly black city streets to affluent white suburbs.
Just about every other week, Jim Matheny, a 41-year-old police lieutenant in Stamford, Conn., says he gets into foot chases with youths. He says it's getting easier to capture them because they can't run fast or far in those loose jeans.
"When I catch them, I tell them they'd do much better if they had pants that fit," says Lt. Matheny, who says he has had to help hold up the pants of his suspects while patting them down to search for drugs or weapons. "It's like: 'Hey dude, buy a belt and save yourself some trouble.' "
Ill-fitting pants aren't suited for jumping, either, as Noah Donell Brown of Hendersonville, N.C., learned. The 24-year-old tried to leap over the counter of a Subway sandwich shop during a robbery attempt, but he stumbled and came crashing down in front of several startled store employees. Mr. Brown, armed with a gun, got up and fled into a nearby residential neighborhood as the police were notified.
Police didn't have to work hard to arrest him. As Mr. Brown tried to scale a picket fence in someone's backyard, he caught his pants, according to the police department. He was found dangling upside down, his pants at his ankles and tangled in the fence.
"He didn't make a good jump," said Hendersonville Police Chief Donnie Parks, who spotted Mr. Brown on the fence. "The only reason we caught the guy was because his pants fell down," he said, adding: "He was wearing underwear, thank goodness."
Hendersonville police used a knife to cut Mr. Brown free. He is currently serving time in prison after pleading guilty to attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon. His lawyer, Greg Newman, who has since become the mayor of Hendersonville, said he had not spoken to Mr. Brown since 2003. Mr. Brown, serving his sentence at Gaston Correctional Center in Dallas, N.C., could not be contacted for comment.
Dwight Oliver showed up for a court hearing in Seminole County, Fla., wearing loose pants and tennis shoes without laces. While waiting for his case to be called, Mr. Oliver tried to flee. He lost his pants as he ran down the steps of the courthouse.
He was later found in gray boxer shorts in a library three blocks from the courthouse and was arrested after a scuffle with police officers. It turned out the charges he was scheduled to face in court that day were dropped. He was slapped with new charges of resisting arrest and sentenced to two and a half years in jail for the incident. He served 17 months and was released in April.
"Those pants certainly didn't help him escape, and if he had just sat and waited, he would have been fine," said F. Wesley "Buck" Blankner Jr., who was Mr. Oliver's lawyer. Mr. Oliver didn't return calls seeking comment. His mother, Alice Oliver, said: "He wears pants like that, but he usually wears a belt."
Karl Franklin tried to run from police in Tallahassee, Fla., in pants that were on fire. According to a police report, the 30-year-old had stashed a lighted cigarette in his baggy pants and appeared to be preparing to urinate at a traffic intersection.
Seth Stoughton, a police officer at the time, approached Mr. Franklin and noticed the man's pocket was smoldering. Mr. Franklin, who could not be reached, started to run, but his pants dropped and tripped him up.
"I tried to slap the fire out, but he was struggling and kicking me, so I couldn't do much but hold him down," recalls Mr. Stoughton, who now works as a fraud investigator. When other officers arrived, they cut off the burning patch of cloth and arrested Mr. Franklin. He was charged with resisting arrest, but he later pleaded guilty to lesser charges and spent 10 days in jail.
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Finally-Free
You mean ass cleavage isn't sexy???
I guess it's time to go shopping.
W
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DJK
It reminds me of a fashion that shocked my JW father in the sixties. It was long hair. There have been other fads since then like punk.
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Fatfreek
Great find, Scully, all those news clips. That is too humorous.
This thread has been an education to me.
Len Miller
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ex-nj-jw
You guys may or may not find this amusing:
As you know I have 3 sons 24, 19 and 17 - I had a rule in my house if I can see the waist band of your underwear you need on a belt. Well, I had to go to school one day to drop off the middle son's lunch money, middle school. I had my 7 year old neice with me, we walked in the door and who do I see but my then 13 year old with his pants around his mid thigh.
I pulled the pink ribbon out of my nieces hair (she though it was the funniest thing), made him come to me, put the pink ribbon into his belt loops and tied it in a bow. I told all his teachers that they were to call me immediately if they saw him without the pink ribbon. He was mortified. He and his younger brother both wear belts and I never see the waste band of their underwear in public.
Now they are grown except for the 17 year old, and they basically can do and wear what they want, but I've never seen their underwear in public since then. Lesson learned? I don't know, but one thing for sure is they know mom doesn't play that S***.
nj
