| Boxers or Briefs |
6 January 2003
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Adolescent Fashion Follies
In recent months, one has noticed that young men in America, and elsewhere but mainly the USA, have taken to wearing their trousers low. Not just hip hugging low, but significantly lower. They take oversized jeans or sweats and secure them closer to the thigh than the waist. Which of course means they can tell which way the wind is blowing on their backsides.
This has brought about a new interest in underpants on the part of my resident teenage boy. The machismo of America used to require that a man's underwear date from the previous decade and be well ventilated by custom-made holes. No more. Since one's fellows, and the suddenly important females of 13-18 years of age, can see them, they must not only be clean but also new and colorful. Despite the pleasure that his concern with hygiene gives me, one has wondered of late, what would John Wayne say?
Of course, the trousers do sometimes become too loose, as during a recent snowboarding trip, resulting in some panicked tugging and pulling. And the cuffs are inevitably worn away, not just distressed but actually non-existent, due to the wearer walking on them all day. And one wonders what the local clergy make of it all.
Yet the majority of older men, and women, who keep telling the young men to pull up their pants, have missed the point -- we should encourage this fashion. Twenty years from now, when the photos are dragged out at family reunions and other occasions, the men who are then in mid-life will be confronted with their younger selves, with the baseball cap askew, their shoes untied and their trousers oh-so-low. And then, we'll see if they have a sense of humor.