Baggy Pants

To the Editor, With the high stigmatism of males wearing bagging pants, I would like to see Memphis induce a law to prohibit males from wearing their pants below their buttocks, also termed baggy pants or saggy trousers. The first reason I would like to see this is because there are so many opinions and stereotypes. This ultimately leads to however I don’t believe wearing pants in this fashion should make them cold criminals. I believe just attempting to ban baggy pants will cause people to think about the issue in their areas. To me wearing sagging trousers is lack of respect to society and mainly women. There was a TV show in the past named Family Matters. There was a comical character in the sitcom named Earkle whom was known to wear his pants above the navel area. I definitely don’t believe that’s necessary at all. l.I do realize the city has other issuers more important as criminal activity, but just starting to face the baggy trousers issue should be faced. According to USA Today at least 20 cities has passed a law against wearing baggy pants. Other cities have tried to ban baggy pants but were rejected. This is due to the First Amendment protecting the wearing of clothing as a freedom of expression. The First Amendment protects you on how you dress. It’s an American Civil Right. Some cities experience The First Amendment as being a hard Amendment to face. However, most cities which the laws have passed this fashion have a local policy including public indecent which covers how a person expose their body in public. Some cities ban baggy pants while relating it to gay, crimes, and gangs. I do not believe its always related to crime or gang.. Again, to me it’s lack of respect and public indencit. Law makers also relate saggy pants directly or indirectly to poor learning and delinquency. This is not my belief. I’ve read different article regarding how wearing pants as such started. One article namely “Pants Hang Low” based on an album being released. This article states bagging pants begin in prison. Its written oversized uniforms were issued without belts to prevent suicide and use of weapons. The style quickly spreaded to all nationalities. Now bagging pants are seen on a regular basis. I believe that one of the most effective ways to reduce bagging in schools was to induce the uniform policy. In the begging of the uniform policy, both students and some parents rebuked the policy. Since the uniform policy has been in effect, the number of children you see now wearing baggy pants has reduced significantly. We can not force all persons to wear uniforms, but at least it is a start in our schools. Uniforms seem to not only reduce the steriotypes of people that wear baggy pants in school, it has also cut down the number of school conflicts because people are not preoccupied with what their classmates are wearing. The stereotypes associated with baggy pants are far from positive. Although we shouldn’t stereotype people for any reason, it is very much a part of our culture. Inducing a law to prevent people from wearing baggy pants, in public will improve the world as a whole and bring the stereotype of a real gentleman back into the picture. Some people simply don’t know, as wrong as it may be, we are at times looked upon according to fashion. Some don’t know how important appearance can affect jobs and colleges. Some forget about the importance of how appearance effect the next generation. Like many other cities, it’s time for Memphis to ban saggy pants. Mattie Fly Public Administration 3601