I guess things maybe just different in different areas when it comes to hoodies (obviously :))
I have to agree with Roches on this one. Maybe certain fashion trends start out about being tough or gangster, but I think when they eventually filter down to mainstream and a lot of kids are wearing them, its just purely about fashion and fitting in. I actually did start wearing them when I got into jungle and drum and bass.
I realize that this doesn’t apply to all hoody wearers and kids sometimes wear them to look menacing.
[hijack]
I was homeless for awhile. You wear what you own, aside from what you lug around with you; and you choose your clothing to be sufficient for the range of weather conditions and temperatures you’re likely to experience, so since it gets rather cold and clammy on a rainy night in an unheated hallway when you’re trying to sleep, you tend to have clothes that are warmer than you need at midday when you’re walking around.
[soapbox]
It just ain’t a good idea to attribute anything to mental illness just 'cuz you don’t initially comprehend it. I’ll be protesting outside the APA convention at Javits this weekend, so I’m a bit stoked and more than usually sensitive to the issues at the moment, but seriously, don’t do that. [/soapbox] [/hijack]
The whole pants around your ankles thing comes from jail… not the hood. A long while back jails stopped letting inmates have belts due to the use of the belt in a deadly way. Therefore, pants hang low from the tough jail people, and that transfers to the people in the neighborhood they’re from, and tada! people in the ‘burbs hop on board to be ‘tough.’ I always thought it was pretty funny, actually when it became popular. (Which, btw, was like 10 years ago or more.) As an aside, if you ever see an old run DMC video, you’ll notice their shoes have no laces… same reason as the belts.
Also, I remember the Beastie Boys, way back in the 80’s, were wearing hoodies in their videos. This is definitely not new, and it’s definitely not the result of gangsta rap, or whatever, it’s what a lot of people here already said. Something that starts out with a practical application (hood over your face so you can steal or harass without being identified) then moves on to a sort of identifying mark (kids like that are tough, if i emulate them, I’ll look tough too) then, invariably it moves to mainstream due to (usually) some counter culture breaking out in an art form like music. Before you know it, you have kids in Arizona wearing hoodies on a 100 degree day because it’s the type of clothing that’s popular and available. Odds are, he or she isn’t even trying to look tough at that point.
It’s true. Why they’re called bunnyhugs here I’m not sure. It’s purely a Saskatchewan thing - even folks from Manitoba and Alberta give a person odd looks for using the term.
It would be, however, very difficult to maintain a proper thug aura while uttering the phrase, “Hold on a sec, I left my bunnyhug in the car.”
Funny, I’m from Regina, SK, and a fairly large group of my friends started to jokingly call them hunnybugs. It stuck, and now I hear more and more people calling them that. It’s not even funny anymore, it’s just another way to label them I guess Saskatchewan is just one big screwed up province.
When I was very young, around 5-9, my family called them kangaroos, because of the pocket common at the front. I’ve never heard anyone else call them that. I’ve heard hoodies, bunnyhugs, hounybugs, but never since I was a child; kangaroos.
Some of the reasons behind the origin of this kind of dress, is to show a degree of rebellion. If you remember, this sort of dress was and in some cases still used in movies to hide someone identity. Kids wearing hoodies helps them fit in and be accepted by their peers while looking mischievous. Pants on the ground is a form of telling the establishment to KMA so to speak and it also has developed into a cultural phenomenon. Another form of cultural expression is the way some motorcycle riders dress. There is this insatiable motivation to look tough or mean.
Most of the newer cultural phenomenon developed by the younger generation of folks have been a form of rebellion or an In Your Face attitude.
This thread had me worried. Over the winter I picked up a hooded pull over with my church’s name on it thinking it would be nice and warm in the tweener weather beginning now.
Edit to add: If the fad isn’t over, an old guy like me with one from my church should kill it off.
Helluva thread necro. I love my hoodies, though, and I’m 26 and not at all tough. I have one that’s white, pink, and blue with monkey faces all over it (here’s a pic–that’s a model wearing it, I’m not that cute). I wear it to work when I want to make my coworkers (or myself) chuckle.
Hell, hoodies aren’t dumb, but it’s not a fashion statement when everybody wears them. What really looks stupid are those knit caps that many are now wearing, especially on guys. Indoors or out, with those stupid ties hanging down. They look like they’re wearing tea cozies.
Funny OP because a couple of years ago I had a conversation with my son about this. We went to the movies and there was a guy wearing a hoodie with the hood up. I immediately thought it was funny because my natural association for someone wearing a hood over their head is a 5 year old child.
I explained to him that it seemed funny that he was doing something he thought made him look tough but people of my vintage were reminded of little children.
It’s fashion, the same way when the 2011 Blizzard in Chicago came there were young men and woman who didn’t have hats on 'cause it would mess up their hair. There ears were beet red and frozen and they wouldn’t put on a hat.
Peoople do weird stuff for fashion
Real gang members try to look as generic as possible. That way when they commit their crime all anyone can say is “he was a white/black/hispanic male, in an oversized white shirt, jeans and white sneakers.”
I guess Saskatchewan is just one big screwed up province.
