I met a parent recently that would not allow her son to wear a hoodie. She said “hoodies for boys are a bad idea”. She felt they promoted a negative attitude and also worse, rebellion. “Only sp5der hoodie put them on” she said. I didn’t agree needless to say, because I had worn them for a long time and don’t consider myself to become a “criminal type.”
I did however recently read a British news article where a certain style of hoodie was going to be banned. It was 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! Security forces felt it was sinister and allowed wearers to completely conceal their identity. I must admit it had been pretty wicked looking and reminded me of someone wearing a gas mask or a full-bodied hazmat suit. It was camo colored and I just knew the wearer had a concealed assault rifle somewhere!
This got me considering hoodies in general. After all, why are they so often associated with criminal behavior now days. It didn’t was previously that way. Didn’t people from all backgrounds just wear them to be casual and stay warm as well. When I was a youngster we just called them sweat shirts with hoods and you 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 could lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me sometimes when I would lose the neck string in the sweat shirt also it would take me hours to obtain 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 during the same time the average European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? What about Robin Hood? There is Little Red Riding Hood. The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White herself. Of course so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. In fact lots 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 just about every stereotype can be found wearing a hoodie at some time and time. Even the Mexican Serape could have a hood onto it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The main point is that hoodies are for everybody even for boys, plus they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do this ourselves with or minus the hoodie. Hoodies can be designed with certain colors combinations or logos to identify the wearer with a particular lifestyle or group and maybe that is were one needs to work with a little discernment or good sense but after that I believe it just boils right down to they’re 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.