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Pull 'em up, in the
name of the law!
James Burnett recently wrote a column entitled,
Pull 'em up, in the name of the law. This is a
very interesting piece. You know I've written
in the past that one of my biggest pet peeves is
too-baggy clothes on young men and boys.
Well, it's back in the news. Newsweek, to be
exact. The magazine has an
"exclusive" story about a push by David
Dicks, Flint, Michigan's new police chief to
criminalize saggy pants.
Dicks has ordered his officers to start
arresting "saggers," as these young men are
called in the Newsweek article, because they are
a national nuisance. He says their style is
"immoral self expression" and deserving of jail
time and/or fines.
This is a tough one for me. I love the spirit
of what Dicks is doing, 'cause I think the saggy
style is stupid. I'm not dissing hip-hop
culture. I love elements of hip-hop culture. I'm
one of the billion different faces of Gen-Xers
who grew up to the tunes of Run D.M.C. and
Public Enemy and MC Serch, and all the other
artists whose clothes fit
Just an aside, coincidentally, I did my
occasional
Q&A for today's paper with my buddy Joe
Gannascoli AKA Vito Spatafore from The
Sopranos. And when I asked Joe Soup to
share with our readers his biggest pet peeve, he
cited the saggy trousers. 
Anyway, as much as this style annoys me, I'm
bothered by it being criminalized. Unless
saggers' butt cheeks are showing - not their
boxers, but their actual cheeks, or their front
set of naughty bits is showing - again, not
their boxers, but their actual bits, then this
is one "crime" that can't be enforced without,
at a minimum, drawing cries of classism.
Think about it. If you criminalize baggy sagging
pants and arrest guys who dress like that, then
you're gonna have to start arresting young women
who wear tight, low-riding pants that reveal the
tops of their undies. 
Which is worse? As a guy who loves women,
naturally I say the man shorts showing is a much
worse offense. But my bias is blatant. And if I
was a defense attorney in Flint, I'd have a
field day with that question.
In the realm of pop culture, tasteless as it
is, this is a legit style, albeit one that often
has young men with perfectly straight legs
walking bow-legged to help keep their pants from
falling down around their ankles.
Regardless, it's dumb. And I'm not saying that
as an old fogey. I like to think I'm a
relatively stylish guy. And I know that young
people often dress differently than grown folks.
But there's nothing creative or interesting
about that particular style. And I seriously
doubt that most of the young men who subscribe
to it - from the 'hoods to the corn fields -
realize that it originated in prison. Ask an
old, gray inmate or former inmate who can talk
about being behind bars and they'll give you two
versions of the origin of saggy pants: one says
that pants sag on male inmates, because often
they can't have belts, for fear they'll hurt
themselves or someone else with the belts; the
other version says that male inmates who have
been designated "girlfriends" are compelled to
wear their trousers saggy, so as to indicate
that their man cheeks are in play, so to speak.
I've heard people try to defend the style,
saying it developed in urban communities where
poor kids had to wear over-sized hand-me-downs.
But that's a crock. I'm sure there are poor
children in poor communities who wear
hand-me-down clothes that are too big. You do
what you gotta do to get by. This style isn't
about poverty. If you don't believe me, check
out the brand labels on the next pair of jeans
you see sagging below the butt-cheeks .
Anyway, again I applaud Chief Dicks'
intentions, but I don't think it's the
government's place to be fashion police, unless
those fashions are literally obscene.
What do you think?
Whale tail
  
Whale tail is the Y-shaped waistband of a
thong or
g-string when visible above the waistline of
low-rise jeans,
shorts, or a
skirt
that resembles a
whale's
tail. [1][2][3]
Intentionally or unintentionally, a whale tail is exposed above
the trousers mostly when sitting or bending, or even while
standing. The frequency or occasion depends on the style of
trousers, the style of underwear, and the way they are worn. [4]
Flashing whale tails became popular in the early 2000s, together
with the rise of low-rise jeans and thong underwear. The trend,
popularized by a number of celebrities including
Christina Aguilera,
Victoria Beckham,
Mariah Carey,
Melanie Blatt,
Paris Hilton,
Jordan,
Anna Kournikova, and
Britney Spears waned within the decade.
    
Specially designed trousers like
low-rise jeans or
hip-huggers and higher cut thongs lead to greater exposure
of the whale tail.[1][4][5]
The trend was also associated with the trend of sporting
lower back tattoos.[6]
The word was selected by the American Dialect Society in January
2006 as the "most creative word" of 2005. Specially designed
rear spoilers for
Porsche 911 and other automobiles are also known as whale
tails, as well as the tip of a certain kind of blood vessel. The
concepts of
visible panty line,
buttock cleavage, and
sagging are closely related to the whale tail.
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