Op-Ed
The Wichitan April 1, 2009
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Saggers and Baggers Beyond Baggy Pants: Lowriding Trend Proves Flashy Jessica Wilden For the Wichitan
All right everyone, here is a serious question. No wise cracks please. The other day I was at the mall and I saw this man. He may have been tall if he were standing upright. He may have been good-looking if I could have seen face. No, the man was not disabled and didn’t look like he was in pain. The issue was the man’s pants were sagging so low that he had to hunch over just to walk. I am talking about waistband at the knees. What I found more interesting was the fact that he had a matching belt secured in the belt loops of the pants as well. Why would he think that was cool? Seriously. This is not the first time I have seen a man trying to strut his stuff while sporting the common fad of sagging pants. This was just the first time that I saw a full-grown man facing the floor and holding his pants up so he could totter back and forth in some manner of walking. I don’t know what most women think about this, but personally I am not impressed. Since this example was so extreme I began to wonder where this fad had stemmed from. My findings were more interesting than I had expected. According to JET Magazine, this same question peaked the
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interest of one of the staff writers. At first it appeared to be just another hip hop trend, but with further investigation the sagging trend came from inside prison walls. It’s not the cool, bad boy look that some think. It is a sign of homosexuality. The pants are worn low on the backside for what Eazy E called
“easy access.” How many saggers do you think would still find it stylish if they took a second and thought about what they were advertising as they ambled down the street holding their crotches. I guess it’s really no different than any of the other fads that have come along.
I mean come on, at one point people thought parachute pants were stylish. Let’s not forget the mullet: business in the front and party in the back. Do these fads have underlying meanings that we don’t know? I know I’m personally guilty at one point or another of jump-
ing on the bandwagon and doing some things that were cool at the time. How many people have we seen wearing the Nike “Just Do It” slogan that are a good 20 or 30 pounds overweight? I know that from now on I will be taking my own advice and doing a little research be-
fore doing the “in” thing. For those men who do not want to send mixed signals to women, you should take my advice too. Who knows – those ladies you are trying to impress might like to see more than that nice crack of yours.