Sagging (fashion)

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A man sagging baggy jeans

Sagging is a manner of wearing trousers that sag so that the top of the trousers or jeans is significantly below the waist, sometimes revealing much of the wearer's underpants.

Sagging is predominantly a male fashion. Women's wearing of low-rise jeans to reveal their G-string underwear (the "whale tail") is not generally described as sagging.[1] A person wearing sagging trousers is sometimes called a "sagger",[2] and in some countries this practice is known as "low-riding".[3][4]

Origin

The style was popularized by hip-hop musicians in the 1990s.[5][6]

It is often claimed the style originated from the United States prison system where belts are sometimes prohibited due to fear that they could be used as a makeshift weapon,[7] and there can be a lack of appropriately sized clothing. As a result, their pants would sag. [5][8]

North America

Example of a boy sagging with exposed underwear

United States

Reaction

During the 2000s, many North American local governments, school systems, transit agencies, and even airlines passed laws and regulations against the practice of wearing sagging pants, although no state or federal laws have been enacted banning the practice.[9] US presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking just before the 2008 US Presidential Election, appeared on MTV and said that laws banning the practice of wearing low-slung pants that expose one's underwear were "a waste of time ... Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on. Some people might not want to see your underwear. I'm one of them."[10]

In June 2007, the Town Council of Delcambre, Louisiana, passed an indecent exposure ordinance, which prohibited intentionally wearing trousers in such a way as to show underwear.[11] In March 2008, the Hahira, Georgia City Council passed a controversial clothing ordinance, in the name of public safety, that bans citizens from wearing pants with top below the waist that reveal skin or undergarments. The council was split 2–2, but the tie was broken by the mayor.[12] Pagedale, Missouri is another to have passed this law in 2008.[13][14]

Benetta Standly, statewide organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia stated, "In Atlanta, we see this as racial profiling ... It's going to target African-American male youths. There's a fear with people associating the way you dress with crimes being committed."[15] The interim police chief of Flint, Michigan ordered the arrest of saggers for disorderly conduct; however, as of August 2008, only warnings had been issued. The local chapter of the ACLU threatened legal action in response, saying that sagging did not violate the Flint disorderly conduct ordinance[16] and a Florida judge threw out a case brought under a similar rule, as being unconstitutional.[17]

Sagging clothing is a violation of some school dress codes,[3][18][19][20] and the prohibition has been supported in the court system.[21]

Two weeks after the "Pants on the Ground" video became popular due to American Idol (see below), a billboard campaign against the style of sagging pants was launched in the Dallas, Texas, area. The billboards feature Big Mama Joseph from the 1997 film Soul Food saying, "Pull 'Em Up!" and asks youngsters to "Keep it a secret!" The campaign is the brainchild of Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine R. Caraway, and uses advertising space donated by Clear Channel Outdoor.[22] Another billboard campaign against sagging pants was launched in Brooklyn, New York by New York State Senator Eric Adams on March 28, 2010.[23] In May 2010, New York State Senate President Malcolm Smith used US$2,200 from his campaign fund to launch a similar campaign in Queens.[24]

In the fall of 2010 at Westside Middle School in Memphis, Tennessee, the policy on handling sagging pants is for students to pull them up or get "Urkeled", a reference to the character Steve Urkel of the 1990s television show Family Matters. In this practice, teachers would pull their pants up and attach them there using zip ties. Students would also have their photo taken and posted on a board in the hallway, for all of their classmates to see. In an interview with WMC-TV, Principal Bobby White stated that the general idea is to fight pop culture with pop culture.[25] One teacher at the school claimed to have "Urkeled" up to 80 students per week, although after five weeks students got the message, and the number dropped to 18.[26]

On November 23, 2010, Albany, Georgia passed a city ordinance that banned the wearing of pants or skirts with top more than three inches below the top of the hips, and imposed a fine of $25 for the first offense, increasing to up to $250 for subsequent offenses. By September 2011, City Attorney Nathan Davis reported that 187 citations had been issued and fines of $3,916 collected.[27]

On December 8, 2010, the city of Opa-locka, Florida voted unanimously on a $250 fine or 10 hours of community service for individuals who did not pull their pants up.[28]

In Fort Worth, Texas, the local transportation authority implemented a policy in June 2011 that prohibited any passenger from boarding a bus while wearing sagging pants that exposes their underwear or buttocks. Signs were posted on buses saying, "Pull 'em up or find another ride", and one City Council member was looking for funds for a billboard campaign. The communications manager for the Fort Worth Transportation Authority said that on the first day the policy was enforced, 50 people were removed from buses for wearing improper pants. Some complained about the policy, but the overall response was positive.[29]

A state law went into effect in Florida for the 2011–2012 school year banning the practice of sagging while at school. Pupils found in violation receive a verbal warning for the first offense, followed by parental notification by the principal for the second offense, which will require the parent to bring a change of clothing to school. Students would then face in-school suspension for subsequent violations.[30]

University of New Mexico football player Deshon Marman was removed from a U.S. Airways flight bound for Albuquerque, New Mexico for wearing sagging pants.[31] A few months later, Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank, California for the same reason.[31]

In April 2012, Alabama County Circuit Judge John Bush sentenced 20-year-old LaMarcus Ramsey to three days in jail for appearing in court with sagging blue jeans that exposed his underwear, telling him, "You are in contempt of court because you showed your butt in court."[32]

On June 12, 2013, the Town Council of Wildwood, New Jersey, located on the Jersey Shore, voted unanimously to ban sagging pants from the town's boardwalk.[33]

In Ocala, Florida, a law was passed against sagging jeans, violators face a $500 fine or up to six months in jail. Something similar was done in Wildwood, New Jersey.[34]

In September 2015, students at Hinds Community College in Mississippi protested college authorities for the right to sag their pants.[35][36] The protest was prompted by the arrest of a student for sagging in violation of the college's dress code.[35][36]

On July 5, 2016, an ordinance was passed in Timmonsville, South Carolina that punishes sagging pants. Offenders may face up to a $600 fine.[37]

Shreveport, Louisiana repealed its prohibition on sagging pants in June 2019.[38]

Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County, Florida, voted 4–1 to repeal their ban on 'saggy pants' in September, 2020.[39]

Oceania

Australia

in 2008, a surf club in Coolum Beach banned men from sagging pants at the club.[40] After a 19-year old surf instructor, Luke McClaren, was denied access to the club, the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties criticised the ban.

Parenting author Kelly Millar wrote that in the late 2000s and early 2010s, sagging pants had been particularly popular amongst wealthier private school boys, who used the trend to show off branded underwear such as Bonds.[41]

In 2009, Bonds released a television commercial in which three young men, sagging their jeans to expose their Bonds underwear, mocked a group of elderly men wearing high-waisted pants.[42]

By 2010, the trend was so widespread that the particular bandy-legged gait adopted by saggers - with their "legs extended a little extra to the side with each step to give their pants extra grip on their thighs" - was described as the "typical gait of the generation" of young Australian men.[43] It was also noted that the trend had shifted from baggy pants and that young men were instead sagging skinny jeans.[43]

The link between sagging pants and graffiti culture was noted in Melbourne in 2010, with sagging pants being particularly associated with "vandals" and "taggers".[44]

Sagging wained in popularity from the mid-2010s, and young men were sagging "less often" by 2017.[45]

New Zealand

In 2002, it was reported that the sagging pants trend had been "widely embraced" by young Kiwi men, who regularly exposed "10 centimetres of boxer shorts".[46] Multiple secondary schools, including Scots College, had banned the trend and were giving students detentions for sagging.[46]

In 2002, the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists warned that the "abnormal" and "exaggerated" gait adopted by saggers to prevent their pants from falling below their knees could cause spinal issues.[47]

In 2011, it was reported that many young men were sagging so low that they were prevented from walking properly, and instead reduced to a waddle-like gait.[48] It was noted that some teenagers, who sagged so low the crotch of their pants was at knee-level, were even unable to lift their leg high enough to board a bus.[48]

Asia

Gaza Strip

In 2013, Hamas' police force launched a campaign named "Pull Up Your Pants", targeting Palestinian youth.[49] Young men with sagging pants were stopped by Hamas police on the way to university and high school, and either reprimanded or forced to return home to change clothing.[49]

India

In 2009, it was reported that sagging was popular amongst men aged 16 to 25, who imitated hip hop artists and wanted to expose their branded, designer underwear.[50] Former law minister Shanti Bhushan noted that although sagging was considered obscene by some, it was not legally objectionable.[50]

Japan

Sagging, known colloquially as koshipan, became popular amongst young men in the late 1990s.[51] In 2006, a survey of high school students revealed that 16 percent sagged their pants.[52] By 2010, it was reported that at least "ten percent of students in most schools" sagged.[52] In the 2000s and early 2010s, sagging was linked to rap music and skateboarding, and was considered popular amongst 20-somethings.[52]

In 2010, 21-year old Japanese olympic snowboarder Kazuhiro Kokubo was heavily criticised for wearing sagging pants when he flew from Narita International Airport to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics.[53][54] Kokubo was punished by the Ski Association of Japan, including being banned from attending the opening ceremony.[55]

Sagging became less popular from the 2010s onwards, with a shift towards neater, more formal and well-fitting clothing amongst high school students and young people.[51]

Sagging in popular culture

Music

The connection between sagging and youth subcultures such as the skateboarding and graffiti scenes was represented by American nu metal band Limp Bizkit in their 2000 song Livin' It Up, which contained the lyric "I'm a keep my pants sagging / Keep a skateboard, a spray can for the tagging."

American rapper Travis Scott sagging his pants while performing in 2015

British rapper Dizzee Rascal referenced the trend in his 2003 track Cut 'em Off, which included the lyric "I wear my trousers ridiculously low".[56]

Mac Miller, who sang about sagging his pants in his 2014 song Insomniak

During the 2010s, when sagging had reached mainstream popularity, it was referenced in hundreds of rap songs, including by Hopsin,[57] Mac Miller, Lil Peep, Lil Dicky, Nasty C, Kodak Black and Yo Gotti, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

Music critical of sagging

Sagging has been ridiculed in music videos, first in the 2010 song "Back Pockets on the Floor" performed by the Green Brothers of Highland Park, Michigan.[58] Another song in 2007 by Dewayne Brown of Dallas, Texas, titled "Pull Your Pants Up", has a similar message.[59] On January 13, 2010, "General" Larry Platt performed "Pants on the Ground" during auditions for the ninth season of American Idol in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2012, a nine-year-old rapper named Amor "Lilman" Arteaga wrote a song titled "Pull Ya Pants Up", and made a music video with an appearance by Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz.[60]

Film and television

The popularity of sagging in the hip hop community was referenced in Pranksta Rap, a 2005 episode of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. In the episode, Bart Simpson is depicted as a rap fan wearing baggy clothes and sagging pants.[61]

In the reality television franchise The World's Strictest Parents (2008-2011), in which misbehaving teenagers are sent to live with strict parents, sagging often became an issue of contention. Although the male teenagers from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia regularly sagged their pants, the strict parents often viewed sagging as disrespectful, demonstrating a generational divide in the trend.[62][63]

During a 2011 interview on Daybreak, a clip was shown in which Liam Payne was sagging. Presenter Adrian Chiles jokingly riposted Payne, who was also sagging during the interview, exposing the same Calvin Klein underwear as in the clip.[64]

See also

References

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  2. ^ Lung, Haha (2008). Mind Fist: The Asian Art of the Ninja Masters. Kensington Publishing Corp. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-8065-3062-8.
  3. ^ a b "Low-riding cool dudes told to hitch 'em high", Jun 30, 2000, Angela Gregory, NZ Herald
  4. ^ "Undie-exposed for the beach", Jan 1, 2002, Patrick Gower, NZ Herald
  5. ^ a b Koppel, Niko (30 August 2007). "Are Your Jeans Sagging? Go Directly to Jail". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  6. ^ Skordas, Jennifer (15 October 1995). "Teens' Sagging Jeans Not Just for 'Gangstas'". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. B1.
  7. ^ Christian, Margena A. (7 May 2007). "The facts behind the saggin' pants craze". Jet. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2022. Archived via FindArticles.
  8. ^ Snopes Staff (15 October 2005). "Sag Harbored". Snopes.
  9. ^ Thomas, Robert Murray (2008). What schools ban and why. Westport, CT: [Praeger Publishers]. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-313-35298-0.
  10. ^ Haberman, Clyde (November 13, 2008). "Can Obama Help Kill Baggy Pants Look?". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
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  13. ^ "City of Pagedale, MO: (Reserved)". City of Pagedale, MO Code.
  14. ^ https://www.watchdog.org/issues/accountability/nanny-state-of-the-week-city-fines-residents-for-chipped/article_7435d55a-20f5-5d03-bf82-7aebc47ca7fa.html [bare URL]
  15. ^ "Crackdown! - Cities begin to belt wearers of saggy pants — but do laws violate rights?". Associated Press. September 17, 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
  16. ^ Bennett, Jessica; Mary Chapman (18 August 2008). "Fashion Police: Flint Cracks Down on Sagging". Newsweek. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
  17. ^ "Judge rules saggy pants law unconstitutional/", 9/17/2008, NBC
  18. ^ Board Approves Dress Code Changes Archived 2008-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, Fresno Unified School District, 1993, retrieved 2008-11-23
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  27. ^ "City Makes Thousands From Sagging Pants". WYFF-TV. September 27, 2011. Retrieved September 27, 2011.[permanent dead link]
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  41. ^ Millar, Kelly (21 July 2017). Mother of a Man-Child: My life with teenage boys. ISBN 1542962544.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  42. ^ "Bonds 2009 Ad". YouTube. 15 February 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
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  47. ^ Oldham, Stu (4 December 2002). "Big-Pants Scare Storm in a Y-Front?". The Southland Times. p. 3.
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  51. ^ a b Yamamura, Midori (28 January 2021). "Gen Z high schoolers reject former fashion of unkempt uniforms". The Japan News. p. 3.
  52. ^ a b c "Kokubo's 'koshipan' kerfuffle puts low-slung slacks back in the limelight". Mainichi Daily News. 28 February 2010.
  53. ^ "Olympic snowboarder's 'street' style offends Japanese - CNN.com". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  54. ^ "ヤバくね？「腰パン」 ルーツは刑務所（平成のアルバム）". 日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
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  56. ^ "Dizzee: the first rascal of rap". The Age. 19 October 2003. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  57. ^ Jonsson, Patrik (January 16, 2010). "'Pants on the ground' goes viral: Top five Larry Platt covers". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  58. ^ "'Pants on the Ground' similar to 'Back Pockets on the Floor?'". USA Today. January 26, 2010. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
  59. ^ Goodwyn, Wade (October 24, 2007). "In Dallas, a Hip-Hop Plea: Pull Your Pants Up". NPR. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
  60. ^ Weichselbaum, Simone (September 17, 2012). "Flatbush rapper Amor Arteaga, 9, is creative force behind music video titled: 'Pull Ya Pants Up'". Daily News. New York. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  61. ^ "Pranksta Rap". IMDb. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  62. ^ "Pull Up His Pants & Dress With Decency Doesn't Come Easy for Alex | World's Strictest Parents". YouTube. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  63. ^ "Teen Refuses To Pull Up His Pants | World's Strictest Parents". YouTube. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  64. ^ "Daybreak 2011 | One Direction | ITV". YouTube. Retrieved 10 June 2024.

External links

  • Media related to Sagging at Wikimedia Commons
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