This happened when I was in the mall with one of my friends I was still in my school uniform but he was wearing some jeans and was sagging pretty low and some lady about 40ish takes it upon herself to tell him how disgusting it was that his pants were that low in public and that she could see his boxers, that if he were her kid she would never let him leave the house looking like that, etc. So I’m thinking “how rude.” I wouldn’t have come up to her and made a rude comment about her clothes, so why would she feel the need to make a rude comment to a person she doesn’t know? Who do you think is in the right? My friend because he was minding his own business or the woman because my buddy did have his pants pretty low even by my standards.
Really low pants or not, you don’t start yelling at a complete stranger for it. It is their body, their clothes, and if they aren’t showing any “offensive” body parts their should mind their busniess.
Personally…I think the whole falling-down-baggy pants thing looks ridiculous. Mostly due to associating it with guys I knew who did it to look “tough”, when it eliminated their ability to move at anything faster than a careful shuffle.
That said, to each his own, and walking up to a stranger in public to insult their manner of dress is a far worse breach of manners in my book. She was rude. And unless she’d have the balls to do something like that to some one her own age, she’s also a bully (and I can’t help but think that the relative ages had something to do with her feeling she had a right to comment. Just a feeling). Just because your friend was young doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve basic respect from other people. No one asked her for her opinion. Unless his manner of dress crossed the lines into illegal exposure, she’d no place to comment.
There are alot of fashions that I find rather “disgusting” ( girls with thongs showing…please, stop!)…but if I took it upon myself to berate strangers for not dressing to my standards, I’d be a jackass.
“Sometimes the rear ends justify the means!” -Opus the penguin
Ah, yes, the more things change, the more things stay the same. I grew up in the sixties - mini-skirts, no bras, long hair - so you can imagine we got our share of this kind of rudeness.
So long as your friend’s outfit was not lewd or obscene, there was no reason for the woman to comment at all. When it comes to fashion and taste, there’s no right or wrong.
I am old beyond my years and when you are cruisin’ around in public showing off your underwear it gets a reaction from me (why do you think they call it underwear?), with all of that being said I normally just laugh out loud at these morons (the baggy pants crowd and the sideways hat club).
A story, I was at Long John Silvers one day in a small town (Pearland, Texas), I am having some fish when in walks the ultra-giant contingent of the saggy pants club (these were some massive pants, I had never seen any this big before), I couldn’t help but laugh at them and before I could stop myself the smartass in me said “the store must have been all out of the big ones, huh?” , the cops sitting a few tables behind me were trying hard to keep straight faces, the idiots wanted to argue about how cool they were but I just finished my tasty fish and left.
My suggestion is to photograph these people so you can sell the pictures back to them in a few years when they grow up.
And please remember that wearing giant pants and wearing your hat sideways (or wearing a Mr. T starter set of jewelry) seriously impedes your employability? in this world (you are NOT dealing with my customers looking like that!).
Unclviny
Children traditionally use clothing as a right-of-passage defiance of authority. With that said, I remember seeing a young man wearing an entire outfit that looked like it came from the catalog of teen-age angst. He had a bright yellow tennis visor upside down and sideways, a neatly trimmed 4 day beard, baggy butt-crack clothes and some strange boots I’ve never seen. I had to turn away and bite my lip because of the obvious amount of effort that went into the look.
Yah, it’s rude to comment on someone’s looks. Adults should take into account the whole right-of-passage thing. Kids should also realize that it IS possible to look goofy to adults. Parents should always get photographs of their kid’s rebel years so they can resurrect them 20 years later.
By the way, I did the same thing when I was younger but I believe now it’s possible to find clothes that bridge the age gap.
while i may have thought what that lady actually said, i would never say it. maybe if it WAS my own kid. but yes, she was out of line.
somewhat on topic, isn’t that look out of fashion by now?
Amen, Wary! You summed up the main principles beautifully. Age does not confer the right to be rude.
It goes a lot further than that, IMO. Adults should lead by example. The standard this “lady” set was that it’s perfectly okay to sideswipe a total stranger with criticisms about personal appearance. That’s tacky and rude beyond belief.
I am reminded of a remark I made to one of the more “mature” people with whom I work: “You have to remember what their parents looked like at that age. Today’s youth are hobbled by parents (and grandparents) who are eager to accept almost anything as falling within the range of “normal”. I suspect it is a task of Herculean proportions to find a look that an old hippie will find unacceptably odd.*”
I blame the parents. If they were more easily upset by signs of self-expression, their kids wouldn’t have to go to such lengths to get the desired result. They should’ve objected to the sideways/backwards hats right away. Then everyone would’ve been happy (except of course for the folks who make those extra baggy pants). I wonder if some Japanese couturier is planning to reintroduce the hakama as youth-wear? 
–SSgtBaloo
*No, usually I don’t talk like that, but sometimes I’m inspired.
You’re right. She’s rude.
She’s right about the pants though.
I think last week I may have misadvertantly participated in the end of some kid’s clothing rebellion.
I was leaving a store and passed a family on the way in; the mother and father were dressed “normally” (I say that in quotes because I can’t really remember what they were dressed in, so it wasn’t anything that stuck out in my mind) and trailing behind them was a boy, I guess about 13, wearing baggy pants with the belt around the mid-thigh to keep them from falling off, a tight black t-shirt, a spiked collar and spiky hair. I must have snickered after passing by, which I admit may have been rude, but he looked so goofy waddling along.
The father turned around and asked if I had laughed at his son. I explained that while the kid was fully in his right to dress that way, I wasn’t offended but I did think he looked stupid. He turned back to his family and said “Yes! He was laughing at you!” The boy looked so crushed, I almost felt guilty.
I can imagine the conversation that went on beforehand:
Boy: I do not look like an idiot! I’m hardcore!
Father: Fine. We’ll go out in public and see about that.
Boy: Fine!
Don’t worry. Remember they looked like morons when they were young, too. If she’s in her 40s, that’d put her youth in the 70s. Have you SEEN some 70s clothes?
Remember this cardinal rule: Everyone who bitches about kids today did something equally stupid, if not MORE stupid, when they were young.
Oh, but the baggy pants thing is extra goofy looking.
Not that the flannel-and-jeans of my late-90s grunge youth was any better, mind.
Never! I’m square now, and always have been square! I bitched about “kids today” when I was a kid!
I’m often tempted to “pants” these kids. Wouldn’t be very hard to do.
Sooner or later, they’ll wake up and realize how silly they look waddling down the street trying to catch a bus.
One of my friends has a son who started to go through the “giant pants with the underwear showing” stuff and as a form of intervention we were all urged to give him a “wedgie” whenever we saw the chance, the “saggy pants” deal didn’t last very long., it’s hard to be cool when you are constantly clearing out a wedgie!.
Unclviny
Ahhh, when I see baggy pants, I point and laugh!
Saying that, I had one of the baggy pants brigade (BPB) make a rude comment on MY t-shirt, in the library of all places. It happened to be a t-shirt for local local rock club (where I used to work) where the BPB hang out. He thought it was very ‘sad’ for me to wear such a t-shirt.
The lady was wrong, although she was right. Hope that clears things up! Also, what fun would it be to dress like an idiot if it didn’t offend the old people?
This topic reminds me of a time when my son was about three or four. We were waiting in a doctor’s office when a teenager came in with his huge pants falling off. My son burst into peals of laughter: “Mama! Mama! Look at the man in the funny pants!” I didn’t see what the kid’s reaction was; I was too busy hushing my son: “No, no, honey, he’s serious!”
Good story, Brahe.
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw the other day. It has nothing to do with the baggy pants thing, but it does have to do with the whole teenagers-dressing-to-shock-their-parents thing.
Anyway, the bumper sticker said, “I’m so goth, I’m dead.” 
Back to the OP: while I think the lady’s behavior was rude, I can’t help thinking that somebody needed to tell this lad that he looked ridiculous.