Should boys be allowed to wear hip hop clothes, a related thread

[Taualumna]

Since we have a thread about the "sexualization of daughters", I feel that we should also have one about boys and what they wear. I would think that the male equivilant to the Britney/Christina esque outfits that girls wear would be anything very hip-hop. Should boys be allowed to wear that? Do you think it is rude (since the styles may be gang-related)? What do you think is appropriate for boys to wear while at school?

[AXJules]

**pulls up lawn chair and waits for bottles to fly as "Racist!!" is shouted repeatedly**

[sugar and spice]

Why the hell should they not be allowed to?

Maybe it's my whole "going to a school with no real dress code" bringing up, but I don't understand why people are so obsessed with clothes.

And I don't think you can correlate "hip hop clothing" and "overly sexualized clothing" -- two different issues.

Plus, as Jules said, this thread is a locking-up waiting to happen.

[valkyrie]

What, exactly, constitutes hip hop clothing?

[bluz4]

Originally posted by AXJules
**pulls up lawn chair and waits for bottles to fly as "Racist!!" is shouted repeatedly**

haha, AXJules. I was reading the forum question and was like: What the???

I'll be back when I am able to give a civil answer.

But before I leave I would love to know what constitutes "hip-hop" style and why we as Americans are still on this "gang-related" clothing kick?

I think that Blacks are blamed far too much for the baggy clothes hanging off the butt look and I hate that when such "Black style of dress" is referred to, it always seems to boil down to "hip hop" and "gang-related."

all right. i'm out.

[PhiPsiRuss]

<<< pulls up chair with huge bag of Terra Blues and a cooler full of Sam Adams

Originally posted by AXJules
**pulls up lawn chair and waits for bottles to fly as "Racist!!" is shouted repeatedly**

Wanna beer? Catch.

[Rio_Kohitsuji]

In the school setting I believe that boys (or girls for that matter) should not be able to where super-oversized clothing.

This is due to safety.

I will soon be teaching in schools in my area that are growing in violence yet the administration are still refusing to put in place any type of metal detectors. Their only solution is a fat-balding cop that much rather check out the overly-sexualized young girls than check the kids who are coming through the back door.

Too many weapons can be hidden underneath oversized clothing. I frankly don't want to take the chance of some kid coming into school with a gun in his pants that you couldn't tell that it was there due to his choice of style.

But on a lighter note, after seeing too many kids running up/down the stairs with baggy jeans to end up falling up/down the stairs due to tripping on their jeans and cracking themselves a good one is another reason for not permitting children to have oversized clothing. (Now, how's that for a run-on sentence?)

[sugar and spice]

Weapons can also be hidden in backpacks, lockers, cars, non-baggy clothing, taped to the body, etc. mu_agd told me a story about how in her middle school, backpacks were banned -- so some kid brought a knife to school in a teddy bear.

Banning wardrobe choices won't change the problem. Kids are a lot smarter than most of y'all give them credit for. They'll come up with new places to hide weapons if that's what they really think is important.

Also, if they're tripping on their clothes, that's their own damn fault! Why do we feel the need to protect kids (many of whom, in this case, are 13 years old or older and certainly are smart enough to comprehend that they might trip on their clothes) from any possible complication that could arise from their own choices?

Learning through experience isn't such a bad thing . . .

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
Banning wardrobe choices won't change the problem. Kids are a lot smarter than most of y'all give them credit for. They'll come up with new places to hide weapons if that's what they really think is important.

This is so true. Hip Hop was born in New York. Hip Hop clothing became fashionable in the schools, as the crime rate was climbing in the schools. Here we are, years later, and more kids are wearing Hip Hop clothing than ever before, but the crime rate has plummeted. There is no correlation between Hip Hop clothing and crime.

[Taualumna]

Maybe it's my school uniform raised voice talking, but I think kids should go to school looking well put together. When I was at school, we weren't allowed to have untucked shirts, "noticable" make-up (most of us didn't wear make-up, but some of the "parachute kids" from Hong Kong (high school aged students who live in a big suburban home with sibling or other relative not too much older than they) did try to cross the line) or nail polish, unnatural hair colour, etc. Faculty would ask students to tuck in their shirt if they weren't tucked, and would ask girls to wash off their make-up if it was too noticable. Most teachers had bottles of nail polish remover in their desks. I would say that we girls were pretty well put together compared to many other schools (including some schools with uniforms), even when our skirts were too short.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by Taualumna
Maybe it's my school uniform raised voice talking, but I think kids should go to school looking well put together.

Why?

I mean, I understand if you want to be "well put together" but what's the justification for forcing everybody to be?

[Taualumna]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
Why?

I mean, I understand if you want to be "well put together" but what's the justification for forcing everybody to be?

I think it makes a better learning environment when you aren't concentrating on what everyone else is wearing. It promotes school spirit too, just like wearing uniforms in athletics promotes team spirit.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by Taualumna
I think it makes a better learning environment when you aren't concentrating on what everyone else is wearing. It promotes school spirit too, just like wearing uniforms in athletics promotes team spirit.

You send your children dressed the way that believe to be right, and don't worry about how other children are dressed. M'kay?

[sugar and spice]

Personally, I wasn't sitting there in class worrying about what other people were wearing, but maybe that was just me. Have they done studies that show that schools with uniforms have better-performing students than schools without uniforms?

And as for school spirit, I think that it could easily have the opposite effect -- kids who don't want to be wearing uniforms will just have another reason to dislike going to school than they had before.

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by Taualumna
I think it makes a better learning environment when you aren't concentrating on what everyone else is wearing. It promotes school spirit too, just like wearing uniforms in athletics promotes team spirit.

I think it makes for a better learning environment when kids can dress how they feel comfortable and learn to deal with the fact that not everybody dresses the same way they do. They'll have to learn this eventually when they go out into the "real world" unless they're incredibly sheltered their entire lives. I also don't think it's the school's job to promote school spirit. Some kids will have it and some won't, and there's nothing wrong with that.