Infographic of the Week

Baggy pants

Quick – call the fashion police! It’s a crack down! Apparently it’s not a hoax but police in Flint, Michigan are attempting to enforce a seemingly crazy ruling, based on indecent exposure law, whereby sagging trousers could result in a stern warning, a fine, or even a prison sentence, depending on just how much buttock is on show. This helpful infographic appeared in the Detroit Free Press so that readers could be fully aware of the legality of their, er, position.

According to Reason Online, who initially blogged the story (though we picked it up from Andrew Sullivan’s Atlantic column):

In February 2005, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill to make saggy pants a criminal offense. Under the proposed law, pants that reveal your undergarments would have been punishable by a $50 fine. “It’s not about individual rights; it’s about values,” explained the bill’s sponsor, Del. Algie Howell Jr. (D-90th District). “The way you dress does have something to do with how you behave.” After the bill made national headlines and inspired national ridicule, the state Senate rejected it. But Howell may get the last laugh. The Christian Science Monitor reported in June that organizers in Atlanta, Detroit, Nashville, and Birmingham have all staged anti-sagging rallies, where high-waistline activists hand out belts to saggy-pants offenders.

And now Flint is officially a no-sag zone. Plumbers and electricians unite!

Comments...

I’ve heard it said that this fashion emanated from ghetto kids who wore their trousers low in an act of solidarity with their brothers in prison. The reasoning for this was that prisoners trousers are baggy because they have had their belts removed. So, what goes around comes around!

Nigel
10/Jul/08, 6:04 pm

Hello,

I agree with the Flint Police Department ruling. I find the sagging trousers look offensive. In London where I live I have seen chefs wearing them and children in full school uniform doing the same, it does not look stylish, it’s disgusting. I do not want to see anyones washed out under-wear.

Regards,
PAULETTE.

Paulette Jackson
11/Jul/08, 11:06 am

I wish I’d been on the team when this brief (no pun intended) came in.

Edward Lamb
11/Jul/08, 2:32 pm

Uhm.. this was posted a few hours ago with the same headline.. Coincidence?

yacco
11/Jul/08, 4:10 pm

Am I the only person who thought this was a nasal decongestant advert at first glance … and then thought it was for a rectal decongestant?

Dave
11/Jul/08, 4:26 pm

“I agree with the Flint Police Department ruling. I find the sagging trousers look offensive. In London where I live I have seen chefs wearing them and children in full school uniform doing the same, it does not look stylish, it’s disgusting. I do not want to see anyones washed out under-wear.”

?!?!??!?!? hello? ok, great idea than put up a law against it… what`s next? a law against skinny pants, hot pants or leather pants?

daniels
11/Jul/08, 5:41 pm

If this is a crime, then girls who have their thongs showing should get the same punishment ;)

Elle
11/Jul/08, 11:16 pm

That is one of the most hillarious things I have seen in a long time. Great design too.

Will Ayers
12/Jul/08, 12:52 am

I’ve heard the trend arose from poor kids wearing hand me downs. Basically the bigger your trousers the bigger your brother, no one wants to mess with the kid with the huge brother.

James Callahan
12/Jul/08, 8:06 am

I think this is a joke.
Low riding trousers are ok. Overly low/buttocks showing, certainly not nice to see, but when company’s like Levis design and produce jeans which are meant to ‘hang low’ it is hardly surprising that a fashion trend catches on.
Jail time does seem like a step to far.

Thomas Wood
13/Jul/08, 3:33 am

hey guy’s love the blog but just one thing…
could you link the images on the main blog page to the actual post instead of the image alone… every-time i want to see the full post I, like many people (i guess) click on the image and i just see the image alone and not the blog post - it’s really annoying - but maybe i’m just useless!(-;

reggie
14/Jul/08, 12:28 pm

Paulette and Nigel, did you just arrive on a time machine from 1940s southern U.S.A.? I mean, hello? human rights…? If showing a bit of your underwear (whatever reason you have to do so) is enough to send you to jail, what’s the punishment for these people that show up naked in the middle of a field during a football or baseball match? Death penalty??? North America is just plain sick.

Angel
17/Jul/08, 2:48 pm

“I’ve heard it said that this fashion emanated from ghetto kids who wore their trousers low in an act of solidarity with their brothers in prison. The reasoning for this was that prisoners trousers are baggy because they have had their belts removed. So, what goes around comes around!”

True, prisoners do not have belts, but they also do not have the pants they went to jail in. They are given uniforms.

The sagging of the pants is to signify that you are someone’s (pardon the language) *bitch* … i.e. easy access.

Rather than admit to the outside world that they were someone’s bitch on the inside, ex-cons came up with that “solidarity” story.

Later the sagging was used to hide contraband, so prisons have been trying to institute rules against it.

But it hasn’t stopped gangsters in the outside world from sagging their pants to hide guns.

My step father has been a state prison guard in Colorado for over a decade, and my cousin is a state prison guard in Michigan. Both told me the same stories.

Funny how my younger brother stopped sagging his pants after my step father told him that ;)

Michelle
23/Jul/08, 7:22 pm

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