The Responsibility Project^®. Exploring what it means to do the right thing

Fashion Police: The Case of the Sagging Pants

271 Comments

October 9, 2008 by Kathy McManus

We are a nation that pulls itself up by the bootstraps. 

But are we also a nation that needs to pull up its pants? 

A 17-year-old Florida boy was recently jailed overnight for violating a local “sagging pants” law after a police officer spotted him riding his bike with his pants slung low enough to reveal four or five inches of boxer shorts. 

“Your Honor,” the boy’s public defender told the court, “We now have the fashion police.” 

A Florida judge later declared the law unconstitutional, but that hasn’t deterred authorities in California, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Texas and other jurisdictions from proposing or enacting similar measures, arguing that the sagging fashion is akin to indecent exposure. 

The style of wearing over-sized pants that sag to reveal large expanses of underwear started in prisons, where big pants were issued with no belts. In the 1990’s, the look seeped into the popular culture--and under the skin of politicians and police. 

“We’re not going to sit here and let that happen in Flint,” declared the police chief of Flint, Michigan, where wearers of saggy pants can be arrested “if the pants are at the knees and your underwear is exposed.” He calls the look “disorderly” and “immoral self-expression.” 

The south Chicago suburb of Lynwood, which also bans the buns look, claims the fad has gone so far as to effect economic growth and discourage businesses from investing in Lynwood. 

ACLU attorneys counter, calling the laws “idiotic” and arguing that “You can’t arrest people because of their style of dress.” 

Tell us what you think: Should government be responsible for dictating what citizens can wear? Is publically exposing your underwear freedom of expression, indecent exposure, or your personal responsibility?

271 Comments

What do you think? Leave a comment

• October 10, 2008 by Taryn

  Can we start jailing women for wearing shirts so low their breasts are falling out, and shorts that are so short it's as though they're simply wearing underwear?

  Reply

  • January 16, 2009 by

    In answer to your question about jailing women for indecent exposure, the answer is yes. Fine them and jail them just like these idiots who walk around showing my Grandmother their underwear.

    Reply

  • July 7, 2009 by D

    Pants DO NOT NEED to show the butt crack it is the MOST DISGUSTING THING. It should be against the law for a man or a woman or a child to show underwear or butt crack on baggy or tight pants, period. What about the tight pants young boys are wearing they call skinny jeans that makes them look girly?? Again, tight or baggy, man, women, child or teen PLEASE ABOVE THE BUTT CRACK.

    Reply

  • February 18, 2010 by Ray Jay

    ok that guy has a point i see some girls that wear their shirts really low and i dont like it but i dont think they should be thrown in jail because of it..lol really thats just another stupid law they are trying to make and the way i see it is if boys want to show their butt then ok let them its their body not the government or anyone elses so get over it.

    Reply

    • May 20, 2010 by Tonya

      I think it is a statement that kids are making. We did the same thing when we were younger so I don't see nothing wrong with it. My fifteen year old son wears them that way too. I think parents need to worry about other things than what their child is wearing. Like who they hang out with or are they doing drugs. Not their clothing!

  • February 18, 2010 by fat albert

    people are not grown theses days but about the girl thing thats alright if they do it but if the boys do it its just not right. haha With there being a dress code while your in the public yes. and if they dont listin you should be hard on them.

    Reply

  • February 18, 2010 by Jack J. Bishop

    I totally agree i mean the way people wear there clothes is a choice that americans get up and make every day,their should not be a certian way or law tellin them how to wear their clothes, thats just taking away AMERICANS FREEDOM.................

    Reply

    • April 24, 2010 by thebbb

      underwear... fashion police? as long as ppl are not 'flashing'; maybe the police should invest thier time reducing public anxiety by intervening in ppl's actions that interfere w/life, liberty, & pursuit of happiness God Bless

  • June 3, 2010 by BABY-DEE

    THAT IS JUST UKKKKK. WHAT IF SHE OR HE BLOW IT UP

    Reply

• October 10, 2008 by Saritha Clements

  As the mother of a teenage boy I dislike the sagging pants look. I am always admonishing him to pull up his pants and he is not allowed to wear them terribly low. I sometimes see people on the subway and their pants are so low they are forced to walk as if they have a load in their pants. But despite not liking the look I do not think there should be a law against it. To me that seems a violation of civil liberty. I also don't like the pierced look or the belly showing look but that is not against the law...Where would the law end? Who would be allowed to decide what is and is not acceptable?

  Reply

  • January 9, 2009 by

    This is a good article. Kids these days are so, so rude.

    Reply

• October 10, 2008 by Daniel

  One thing I do know is that you are not a leader when,you go with the so called fashion statement wearing baggy pants. Hmmm, did you ever think about dressing the way you really want and be a leader, and maybe even start your own fashion trend. Don't get me wrong, if your job requires it (baggy pants with boxers shown) then I guess you won't be excluded as a leader.

  Reply

  • January 9, 2009 by

    I feel as though what you wear at home is your business but when you enter the public eye it should be a change. I feel that you should wear something that is appropriate.

    Reply

• October 10, 2008 by peg lombardi

  We can only wish they would spend as much time doing the real important job at hand - fixing what's wrong with this country. They spend time on stupid, unnecessary areas of control like this.

  Reply

  • February 17, 2010 by Andrew

    They are allowed to do that. I am 15 years old. i wear my pants to my-well way under my hips. My girlfriend likes it. She took off my shirt and said"i was made to sag it out".

    Reply

• October 11, 2008 by Kristi Jacobsen

  My sister sold a car several years ago to a man who was buying it for his son. The son was wearing the baggy pants with his boxers showing and my sister's comment was "Do they know how short that makes them look?" I think we're starting to lose sight of individual freedoms. I also think somehow a lot of parents have decided that they need to be their child's friend rather than their parent. The decision of what children wear, at least to a certain age, should be made by their parents, and to a certain degree the schools should have some discretion. The principle of in loco parentis makes the schools the parents in the absence of the parent's presence. But law enforcement has much more on it's plate than policing pants on kids-at least with their pants hanging down like that you know they're not stealing anything. If they put anything in their pockets the pants would fall off, and you know they can't run away in those pants.

  Reply

• October 11, 2008 by Christine Liu

  Young people like to challenge authority, especially the authority they don't trust or believe in. It is in their blood. Unfortunately, many of these kids don't have strong relationships with home authority. It is a sign to show weak family relationships.

  Reply

  • November 16, 2009 by Kerett Williams

    I totally disagree with this theory. Respect and family ties have diminished but not totally, with the society today everyone is proud to let the world know who they are so are the youth attempting to find their way. Maybe if a little more was left in the privacy of our homes by the adults the youth would not be as persistent in revealing their under garments.

    Reply

• October 11, 2008 by Doc Holliday

  The anti-saggy pants law was used, (at least in Florida), as an excuse to arrest people who the cops didn't like, but didn't have reason to arrest. This law was, consciously or unconsciously, targeted at minorities and/or other groups the government didn't like. I believe that politicians might have thought they were justified - even if they weren't - in the name of "decency. The cops, however, saw it as a convenient way to infringe on the civil rights of people they didn't like and allowing ad hoc harassment. Whether you agree with the 'fashion' or not, it is unconstitutional to arrest people without probable cause, which this law allowed them to do.

  Reply

• October 11, 2008 by Gorgonzola

  There should be a dress code against inappropriate dress in public. They already have it in schools but it isn't enforced half the time.

  Reply

  • April 22, 2009 by Alex The Teen

    That's wrong. There should never be a dress code in public beyond indecent exposure. when you get a dress code into government law, in my personal voice, that's one giant step towards communism because its TELLING you not be be an individual. I may not like the baggy pants look, but it sure as heck not a bad thing! That's like telling the goth kids to not wear black!!! It's just not going to happen and its wrong.

    Reply

• October 12, 2008 by Christie Kramer

  Who is responsible for making any decision, be it baggy clothes or anything else? The police may not be the best ones to enforce a dress code, but like in all other areas where we as parents fail to teach our children that there are consequences for all decisions that they make, they are forced to take care of the chaos that occurs. Our children chose the clothes they wore and if their choice was in line with our guidelines, we paid for their choices until they were old enough to pay for their own. If they chose something we didn't agree with, they could chose to buy it themselves or choose something within our guidelines. Baggy pants were not considered safe, in our home. Shame on the schools that do not enforce their dress code and any other rules they have (or shame on the parents that don't allow them to enforce the rules. What a disservice to children when parents aren't involved in teaching them to make choices that have consequences they can thrive on. Children, like adults, do not always make good choices. There should be no question about the fact that they are responsible for the consequences of all their choices, not someone else.

  Reply

  • March 2, 2009 by helen

    Sagging is not OK 4 young teens. People don't want to see your underwear so chill out. You won't get a job and you won't get a girl.

    Reply

• October 15, 2008 by mrsgrim88

  These kids have no more idea how silly they look than we did. Every generation's got them: big hair, platform shoes, bell bottoms, corsets, bustles; the list goes on and on. Don't worry, they'll be suitably horrified at their appearance soon enough. Baggy, I've never cared about, but the wearing them where the underwear is showing just looks slovenly to me and if they didn't pull them up, I would, their friends too, still do. It's cute; some of them still hitch up their britches when they see me coming. As for legislating this issue, I don't dig it - too pushy for me. I'll tell you, you look silly, but it's not up to me to make you change.

  Reply

  • April 23, 2010 by bz

    yes thats what im talkin bout some one with a brain i sag but not all the way down to my knees i keep it under my shirt people need to deal with it it is a fashion

    Reply

• October 15, 2008 by Dr. David Wilkes

  There is nothing in this article to suggest that this case involves a "fashion police". To say so is a bizarre twist on the event. The law in question addresses self exposure in public. If one twists the real issue as this writer has done, then the writer of the article should have no problem with skirts that are so short that they reveal a 13 year girl's rear end and genitalia. This is NOT an issue of fashion police at all. The issue is to what extent the people can accept public exposure of one's body and defining what that means. I personally do not believe that people, on the whole, are mature enough to responsibly handle "self exposure" in public.

  Reply

• October 21, 2008 by Mara

  I never understood the appeal of people having the need to show off their underwear. I don't want to see it. I just want to beg some of these people to pull up the belt. Heck, I'll even buy some of them a belt. Personally, I think the parents shouldn't let their kids leaving the house like that....or maybe force the kid to wear embarrassing underwear - or no underwear - so their kids could might just decide to pull up their pants.

  Reply

  • January 9, 2009 by

    Yeah, have respect for yourself.

    Reply

Tell us what you think.