Did you know “sagging” started in prison as a sign for a person’s availability for sexual relations with other inmates?
I hadn’t either until I heard this rumor on the Internet. I was so intrigued by this idea that I did a little research. According to snopes.com, this rumor is only half true. Sagging did start in prison, but not for any sexual reasons.
Sagging is the act of wearing pants so the waistband is around the hips—or lower. The style originated in prison because they rarely had clothes that fit prisoners.
It quickly became a style in the “thug” community and spread in popularity to the younger generation and the celebrity community as well. Not only is the style catching, but so is the “walk” that accompanies it. In order to keep the pants up, the wearer must constantly “hitch up” the pants so they don’t fall down around the ankles.
This is one style I would love to see die. Apparently Louisiana agreed with me. It tried to pass House Bill 1626, which would have made this style—and any others that internationally exposed butt cracks, breasts or pubic hair—a crime. Unfortunately for the public’s eyes, the bill failed.
I remember a family friend—a police officer— tell my parents and me once that he loved “the new style” all the young punks were wearing because “it makes it so much easier to catch them because their pants fall around their ankles and they can’t run!”
Clothing will always go in and out of style and it will always be the younger generation who is at the head of this change. But let me ask you: As college students, where will you be in the fashion trends?
However you want to look at it, you are at an institution for higher learning. You are learning how to be professionals in your field, whatever that may be. As such, a certain level of professionalism is expected from you.
How do you want your professors and other potential references for your resume to remember you? As the kid who wears his pants around his ankles making him look, at best, highly unprofessional?
Or would you rather be remembered as the well dressed, polite young adult who they are proud to introduce to their colleagues in the field? The choice, as always, is yours.