REF: Sagging pants...

["Earl J. Moniz" <emoniz@CHRISTCOM.NET>]

Betty, et al.,
I am curious about this sagging pants business.  I would like to find out the 
original trend-setter for this "style".

A while ago, when Mr. T was in his prime, I heard him say that he was not 
embarassed about his past, in fact, he was downright proud of the fact that he had 
taken the chains of slavery and turned them into gold (if you recall, Mr. T wore 
about forty of fifty pounds of gold chains around his neck)...

So, with that beginning, can we continue the logic and carry it to the sagging 
pants in this fashion ... it is a counter-culture fashion statement y the fact that 
the sagging pants (and exposed posterior parts of the anatomy) have traditionally 
been associated with the working class (plumbers, carpenters, etc - the Tim Taylor 
Tooltime kind of guy) ...  So, now this fashion trend has been taken from the 
working class and been put into a category of "successful, I never dirty my hands" 
"I let others do my dirty work for me" type of statement in gangs...

Between them both came the hat turned around backwards as another counter-culture 
statement about not being a behind the scenes type of person (a baseball catcher) 
but, rather, a successful high-profile individual...

You know, I might be reading too much into all this from the start...the only 
criteria for a counter-culture trait or characteristic is that it be of a counter 
nature!

Anyone have any input?  Any librarians out there with a second degree in sociology 
or psychology?. . .

Aloha...


>Date:    Tue, 8 Apr 1997 05:54:40 -0500
>From:    Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@TENET.EDU>
>Subject: Re: You might be a library media specialist if...
>
>> 2. Everytime you enter a classroom, everyone, including the teacher
>> scurries to find an overdue book.
>
>Personal joke...
>
>or in my school if every time a student sees you in the hall, he pulls up
>his sagging pants.
>
>Explanation:
>
>In my school, sagging pants is a sign of gang affiliation. In a "0"
>tolerance school, that means NO ONE wears sagging pants even though the
>students say it's "style". Since I usually see students up and moving
>around, it's easy for me to tell that they are "sagging" (sitting
>constantly in a desk in the room does not reveal "sagging.")  Hence, I
>frequently call them on sagging.  (I'm NOT a grumpy librarian; they have
>a choice -- wear a belt or use my length of rope to hold up their pants
>while they are in the library.) They are so accustomed to my consistency
>that no matter where I see these students, they hitch up their pants!  I
>just chuckle and wink and go on!
>
>Betty
>                                .----.
>Betty Hamilton, LRS             |    |                701 Cub Drive
>bhamilt@tenet.edu           ____|*    ~~~~~~.         Brownfield TX 79316
>Brownfield High School      \               |         (806) 637-4523
>                             \_/\        . /
>                                  \     {
>                                    \  }
>                                      ~

Earl J. Moniz (emoniz@christcom.net OR emoniz@nccu.net)
Just doing what I can with what I have from where I am...