Hell, half the defendants were in sweats the last time I went to traffic court. Apparently it’s acceptable for a certain subset of the population.
I for one would like to opt out of the societal subset “defendant”. 
I was going to say I’d rather not, then it occurred to me that while I do try to avoid leaving the house in sweats, I do wear them from the office to the self-defense studio where I take classes after work… because the changing facilities there are less than salubrious. So I guess I’m giving myself a pass on ‘traveling TO an athletic endeavour.’
The other weekend I wore them to the grocery store and pointed out to my husband that I was clearly sick as a dog because otherwise I would have changed into jeans for the duration, even if I got back in sweats as soon as I got home.
What do you say to a bass player* in a three-piece suit?
“Will the defendant please rise?”
- Or insert whatever subcategory of people you wish to insult here.
Not caring what peoples reaction is is pretty much essential to “I don’t give a fuck.” What possible difference could it make to me what other people think of what I’m wearing?
Sweatpants in public is just fine.
Because
and
Personally, I think it’s perfectly fine to wear them to run errands. Going to the store looking like these lads? No problem. (I admit, I think the one guy should put on some shoes instead of those flip-flops.) I don’t get why they are ‘as bad as pajamas’.
Perhaps it’s a culture thing. shrug
Hmm… maybe it’s me, but I felt like that was a pretty neutral comment. After all, you either don’t care or you do. If you don’t care, then what difference does what I think make? If you do care, then put on some real pants.
In college, totally acceptable. If I had an 8 o’clock class, I would purposely wear jammies that needed only the addition of a pair of shoes to be complete.
It sounds good and “independent” to say that you don’t care what other people think, but isn’t it really a *good * thing to care what people think of you? Don’t you care what your family, neighbors, and/or friends think about you? Wouldn’t that necessarily extend to your appearance in public? I would think having a positive visual impact on others is evolutionarily a benefit. But whatever floats your boat. I’m mostly talking about the way I personally dress. But I do judge people based on their appearance, and I believe that’s human and normal.
Well… certainly not very harsh. But it does seem to have a judgemental tone - perhaps I’m projecting, here.
Alice, what I wonder is … if your family, neighbors, friends, and every other person in town does it, would you still feel the same way?
Well, I suppose that in that case I would find it fashionable and appealing, like the women in that religious group that wear their hair in updos and wear Laura Ingalls-type dresses find their appearance normal and acceptable.
Do track pants count? I wear Adidas track pants all the time.
To a certain extent I do, unless they are judging me based on my clothing. That’s a pretty shallow frame of reference. But really, there are probably less than ten people in the world whose opinion I really give a shit about. And they take as I am, God bless 'em.
I’m sterile, so no genes will be passed along. 
It may be, but as I said, such judgments seem shallow and pointless to me.
Exactly! “When in Rome” and all that. So, I think that is the difference between you and me on this issue. People here do it all the time. It is unremarkable.
For people who are just meeting you, it’s the only frame of reference they have. And why shouldn’t they judge you on it? You *chose *those clothes, correct? You’re making a statement, and that statment is “I don’t give a fuck.” Again, that’s okay. You’re an island, yippee for you. But don’t act as though other people are shallow for thinking of you exactly what you’ve chosen to portray.
I don’t think I have ever worn sweats outside the home except while exercising, not even when I’m sick, but I don’t care if I see strangers wear them.
There are far more egregious acts a person can commit in public than wearing sweats so even I were to make a list of the top five hundred most unpleasant acts by strangers, wearing sweats would not make the list. An argument could be made that a physically fit person wearing sweat pants in public may care more about his/her appearance than a well-groomed person who is a hundred pounds overweight.
That’s for strangers, if I was on a date like one poster wrote and the guy showed up in sweats for a non-athletic event, it would be a deal-breaker, even if he had a “juicy behind”.
Some folks take into account what people say, and how they behave, and such stuff. But if how they dress is the only frame of reference you find useful, well, rock on.
Because it’s none of their business? Because it serves no purpose? Because there is an excellent chance that they will be wrong?
“Portray” is not the same as “wear.”
If they are thinking anything other than “He chose to wear sweatpants,” they are making a judgment based on insufficient data. Why should I care what they think? Apparently, they hardly think at all.
There are times when I absolutely give a fuck, other times when I don’t. I think I’m a fair judge of when those times are appropriate and when they’re not. I drop my kids off at school with my pj’s on and might stop at the gas station with my pj’s and a coat over them. I would not go to a school conference, however, in my PJ’s or anything less than casual, actual, dress. I might run out to the corner convenience store in my sweats but I’d get dressed for actual grocery shopping. Don’t know what camp that puts me in but I like to think I do, indeed, have a pretty good grip on when it’s OK to not give a fuck if princess, who’s stopped at the corner store the same time as me, thinks I’m boorish.
Oh, and yeah, I truly don’t give a fuck about people who would judge me based on a snapshot of my life, seeing me buy a cup of coffee in my sweatpants and pajama shirt. These are likely the same people who judge those they see buying groceries with food stamps and have the audacity to have some twinkies in their cart. For those people, I’m always, “whatthefuckever” in terms of how much I care what they think.
Um, define “okay”. Does that mean that if we dress “appropriately” out in public we get to escape snotty looks and comments? (not that I’d notice, I’m a fat, hideous, old lady anyway, I’m quite sure I scare small children no matter what I wear) Or does “okay” that it’s acceptable based upon a majority of sorts of the general public?
Anyway, based upon my fellow Anchorageites I’d say that it’s just fine and dandy. By the by, when I was a wee lass people used to dress up, and I mean dress UP, to fly on an airplane. Girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school, we really weren’t yet wearing jeans, we wore "slacks, " when we did wear pants, it was considered tacky to wear jeans "out in public.
Imho, it depends upon what part of the public one is going into. I think that the store is fine to wear sweats to. And I guess at this point I’d have to say “define sweats”. From the sound of the OP and other dopers, they make them sound like everyone who wears sweats is wearing 20 year old stretched out, holey, painted on sweats (I DO wear painted on, currently being WORKED in ones to Home Depot and Lowes, though).
I had to look at the OP’s location to make sure she wasn’t from Connecticutt or somewhere like that, I remember when I was in basics the girls from the East Coast thought it was tacky to even wear pants, let alone jeans. One had never worn anything but skirts. They’d probably faint at the sight of sweat pants!!!
Anyway, back to the “what part of the public” I certainly wouldn’t wear them out to nice locations, dinner, the theatre (movies, of course, those damned movie theatres are cold!!).
If we’re going to start dictating what is “okay” or not okay for people to wear, we should DEFINITELY start with those poopy diaper pants that so many young thug wannabes insist upon wearing. This is why I asked for a definition of “okay”. There are a lot of things people wear that are silly looking (those pants crack me up, especially when the young men that wear them are attempting to step down off of a curb!), make the wearer look bad (including some supposedly nice dress up clothing, oooh I’ve seen some really bad outfits :D), and so on. I know you didn’t intend to say anything of the sort, but nothing we say or do is going to stop others from wearing stuff that we personally consider “bad”.