I met a parent recently that could not allow her son to wear a hoodie. She said “hoodies for boys certainly are a bad idea”. She felt they promoted a negative attitude and also worse, rebellion. “Only criminal types put them on” she said. I didn’t agree needless to say, because I had worn them for years and don’t consider myself to be a “criminal type.”
I did however recently read a British news article where a certain style of hoodie was going to be banned. It had been a faceless hoodie, one that could be zipped around completely cover the wearer’s face. It even had two transparent elliptical plastic eyes to check through! Backwoods Backpack felt it had been sinister and allowed wearers to totally conceal their identity. I must admit it had been pretty wicked looking and reminded me of someone wearing a gas mask or perhaps a full-bodied hazmat suit. It was camo colored and I just knew the wearer had a concealed assault rifle somewhere!
This got me thinking about hoodies in general. After all, why are they so often associated with criminal behavior now days. It didn’t used to be that way. Didn’t people from all backgrounds just put them on to be casual and stay warm simultaneously. When I was a kid we just called them sweat shirts with hoods and you also either wore a pullover or one that zipped up. I thought the pockets were what made them cool, one big one over the front you can lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me at times when I’d lose the neck string in the sweat shirt also it would take me hours to get it back!
I was thinking about all the famous or notorious personalities through history who wore hoodies. There is medieval monks, they wore sort ‘a corny looking dark pullover with hoods. And through the same time the average European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? What about Robin Hood? There was Little Red Riding Hood. The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White herself. Of course so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. Actually a lot of witches ware hoodies! Think about Shrek… and Rocky? Now there is a couple or hero types that wore a hoodies (and a beanie in Rocky’s case). What I’m saying is merely about every stereotype can be found wearing a hoodie at some time and time. Even the Mexican Serape would have a hood onto it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The main point is that hoodies are for everybody even for boys, and they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do this ourselves with or without the hoodie. Hoodies can be made with certain colors combinations or logos to recognize the wearer with a particular lifestyle or group and maybe that’s were one needs to work with a little discernment or common sense but after that I believe it just boils right down to they are comfortable, convenient and down right practical. So in the end I will continue steadily to wear my hoodie and hopefully it generally does not upset anyone.
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