Apparently, the plague of low-riding pants has become so bad in Dallas that they've decided that Something Must Be Done. And that something is to tell guys wearing their pants that low that it means that clearly, they're gay and want to be done up the ass.
Tragically, grievously, and most unfortunately ... not really kidding.
Saggin' — young men wearing their pants with the waistband closer to their knees than their hips — has been around for years. But a growing number of adults are deciding they've had enough. In Dallas, an interesting mix of politicians, hip-hop artists and white businessmen are announcing a citywide campaign with a simple message: Pull Your Pants Up.
Deputy Mayor Dwaine Caraway's work life usually involves economic development, crime, housing-code enforcement and stray dogs. But the drumbeat of anger from South Dallas, the predominately black part of town, got so loud that Caraway decided to take a little detour into law enforcement work — fashion police. "This is not just a teenage problem," Caraway says. "There are people sagging ... in their 30s. You know, where's your mind? You're not a teenager."
Caraway says that at first, saggin' was about showing your boxers. Then it was about showing more of your boxers. Then dirty boxers were cutting edge. And now there are guys walking around with no boxers on at all. "You have some folks that don't even have on underwear, period," he says. "And who's to say what the generation that's looking at this generation will do after these guys?" [...]
Granted, that the message is very slightly more subtle than "low hanging pants get you done up the butt, whether you want it or not". VERY slightly.
The campaign also has its own Myspace page (thankfully, the theme song -- yes, there is one, it's on the NPR site -- doesn't play when you launch the page), along with the following post:
a message to the gay community...
I have recieved numourous messages that I am promoting homophobia in the community...
I respect your view, but could you tell me how I'm promoting homophobia?
If you are referring the statement "looks to me your on the downlow," here is an explaination
In the prison system, when a man wears his pants around his thighs it is a signal that he is available, many of these guys do not understand the meaning and history of sagging, I am not saying anything to slander the gay community, only enlightening these guys on what it really means, what you do is your business, but if a streight man is doing something that in prison signifies homosexuality, should he not have the right to know?
So let's see: in a single campaign, we get a bit of racism, a bit of homophobia, and the assumption that everyone needs to know prison signs because not knowing them could accidentally get you screwed up the butt. You'll just be wandering down the street, a random former inmate will pass you, see your saggy-ass pants and think, "Hey, that guy wants me to screw him! Whee!" And then you'll find yourself raped and wondering what happened, and it'll all be your own damn fault for wearing your pants too low. Your exposed boxers (or, heaven forfend, actual butt cheekiness) will just make that former inmate need to do you right there on the street. Never mind the fact that most former male inmates are straight, probably preferring to have the odd bit of consensual sex with women, and even after prison, mostly understand that raping stray people on the street isn't something they really ought to be doing. Never mind the fact that, somehow, we haven't heard of trials with some poor guy on the stand, saying, "He told me that he raped me because my pants were sagging, and it meant that I wanted it." No, never mind all that. Just remember, and never forget: saggy ass pants = rape bait.
It is, I will admit, at least a novel twist on the "blame the victim for wearing revealing clothes" rape defense.
I really wish I understood quite why the entire country is suddenly getting so riled up about low-hanging pants. The style has, against all odds, persisted for about 20 years. It's nothing new. And yet suddenly, the entire country seems gripped with the need to make young black men pull those Damn Pants UP! Passing anti-saggy pants laws is blatantly unconstitutional, so now we're resorting to using the spectre of rape to terrify guys into pulling up their pants. And, of course, that's going to work SO well. They're not going to see through that at all, of course. And none of them will get so peeved or amused at the way the Man is coming at them that they'll decide to wear their pants even lower, perhaps with extra small, extra dirty (ew, by the way) or entirely absent underwear, oh no no no! They would never do that!
One does wonder how it never seems to have occurred to anyone what a desperately bad idea a campaign pursued this way seems to be.
Posted by iain at October 26, 2007 11:49 AM
