[Paleopsych] WP: In a Teenage Waistland, Fitting In
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Thu Aug 4 01:34:57 UTC 2005
In a Teenage Waistland, Fitting In
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072902176_pf.html
Disrespectful? Some legislators say yes. Kids say that's not their
goal.
By Natasha K. Warikoo
Sunday, July 31, 2005; B01
Last year, as part of my doctoral research, I spent a semester
observing teenagers at a multicultural high school in Queens, N.Y. One
day as I walked down the hall, I noticed a security guard telling a
student that the do-rag on his head was "a violation." The guard
proceeded to fill out what looked like a parking ticket. I asked
another student what was going on, and he told me that the school was
cracking down on dress code infractions; three breaches could earn a
suspension. His Jamaican-born mother, he later said, didn't like him
wearing do-rags because police might interpret them as signs of
delinquency, "especially on a black male like me." He'd already been
stopped several times to be checked for drugs and, once, on suspicion
of stealing the bike he was riding. His own explanation for the
do-rag, however, was simple: On days he didn't comb his hair, he used
a do-rag to cover it up. It was his solution to a bad hair day.
As July slips into August and "back-to-school sale" signs start
popping up in mall windows, clothing-based disagreements between
adults and teens -- over what's appropriate and what's not -- will be
heard in households across the nation. Some of these discussions will
be no weightier than the "flip-flop flap" that occurred when a few
members of the women's lacrosse team from Northwestern University wore
stylish variations of casual footwear to the White House a couple of
weeks ago. Others will be decidedly more so: Many schools, shopping
malls and other public spaces have developed rules regulating teen
dress. Earlier this year, even some state lawmakers tried jumping into
the fray, as legislators in Virginia and Florida proposed so-called
"droopy drawers" bills, which would have levied a $50 fine on anyone
caught exposing underwear -- an act that's almost a given for girls'
low-rise pants and boys' baggy hip-hop-style jeans. Both bills failed,
but that doesn't mean another won't reappear: A state representative
in Louisiana proposed a similar bill in 2004.
Adults, it seems, are seeing rebellion, disrespect for authority or
even criminality in those thongs and overlarge pants. Algie T. Howell
Jr., the state legislator who introduced Virginia's bill, said he
decided to propose it after seeing a parade of baggy jeans at a visit
to juvenile court. A vote for the bill, he said was "a vote for
character." Closer to home, one student told me that his mother
"thinks that if you wear these kinds of clothes you are going to turn
bad."
But how true is that interpretation? As part of my research on teen
life, I spoke to hundreds of high schoolers in both the United States
and Britain, asking, among other questions, about their clothing
styles and what they mean. The surprising answer: While there'll
always be the odd, message-sending troublemaker -- like the young
woman in Tifton, Ga., who wore a T-shirt referencing her principal's
DUI arrest ("Don't Drink and Drive") -- for most teens, adherence to
"dangerous" dress often signals an eagerness to conform, both within
their peer group, and in the future, as adults.
Unsurprisingly, most teens bristle at the idea that they're being
judged by their clothing. And for urban teenagers, especially boys
like those at the Queens school, this sort of misunderstanding can
have serious consequences in their interaction with law enforcement
authorities and educators. At best, it fosters a feeling of being
excluded. One ninth-grade student, a devoted hip-hop fan, recounted an
incident at a pharmacy a few days earlier, when a boy wearing what he
called "tight-tight clothes" was allowed to wander freely through the
store, while he and his friends, in much looser attire, were watched
carefully.
Girls also told me they felt misunderstood. One ninth-grader who
described her style as "rock and punk," a rarity in her school, told
me that "some people" think her black nail polish and dog collar
"shows that I am a rebel . . . [But] sometimes I rebel and sometimes I
follow the rules." We met in her honors English class; her 89 grade
average put her in the top third of her class. So while she was
setting herself apart in her hip-hop-dominated school, the rebellion
was only a few polish-coats deep.
Another girl, a well-manicured 11th-grader with straightened,
highlighted hair, abundant gold jewelry and a cell phone permanently
attached to her tight jeans, told me, "Some people think I look
stupid, because of the way I dress. They think . . . 'She wanna look
good all the time and she don't have any time to concentrate on school
. . . .' But that's not me." She's a B student, and told me that her
current goal was to be less social in order to raise her average even
higher.
When I asked teens in the schools I visited -- large, urban, featuring
a multicultural student body -- to describe their style, "hip-hop" was
the most common response. Along with peers, R&B singers and rappers
ranked among their most common fashion influences. In their CD
collections, artists such as Usher, 50 Cent, P. Diddy and Ludacris
took top spots.
This connection between rap music and hip-hop fashions may be part of
what makes the mainstream nervous about obviously urban fashions. Rap
music is seen as the harder side of hip-hop, and a study published in
the American Sociological Review found it to be one of the few genres
widely disliked by well-educated Americans -- even those who claim
diverse music tastes. Another piece of evidence often cited against
the over-large pants look is a commonly cited theory of its origin:
The look may have been started by men in jail who didn't have belts to
hold up their ill-fitting clothes.
Yet this association, often at the forefront for adults, tended to
escape the kids I spoke to. Like the boy above, whose mother was
afraid he'd turn "bad," many said they wore the pants just "because
they're more comfortable." Most rap-favoring students had similar
aspirations to others students I met. Across the board, 90 percent
said they believed they'll attend college. And, like their peers, rap
fans aspired to be scientists, stockbrokers and lawyers, among other
things. Moreover, though schools sometimes impose dress codes in order
to ban gang identification, many boys I spoke to told me they actually
use their clothing to signal a disassociation from gangs -- choosing a
do-rag instead of a red or blue bandanna, for example.
Given the risks of being misunderstood by adults, why do teens dress
the way they do? In a nutshell, for status. Most of us would like to
be seen as hip and cool by our peers, but for certain teens, this may
be the only aspect of life they can control. Uncool middle-class
adults can draw upon their wealth, education and contacts to improve
status -- they can find a better job, buy a bigger house, work longer
hours for more pay. But for teens -- especially those from poorer
households-- these means are for the most part unavailable. Hence,
peer status really matters. It doesn't, however, preclude other
aspirations.
Contrary to what adults may believe, these kids don't think it's
uncool to do well in school. As one 16-year-old, whose parents
emigrated from Guyana in 1982, said: "The people that do good and come
out of here [high school] in four years, they are highly respected.
But the people that come with big book bags . . . those are considered
geeks." Success, then, was defined as being "able to juggle
everything." In other words, kids who are failing academically aren't
choosing to reject school and what it has to offer; they're having a
hard time "juggling everything." Those who do well academically but
not with their peers are labeled geeks; others fail in the world of
adults, never learning to hoist their pants or off-the-shoulder shirt
when the principal walks by, or to wear more appropriate attire at a
job interview.
Kids need guidance, then, not on how high to wear their pants or what
styles supposedly aren't conducive to learning, but rather on how to
balance their need for peer respect with their desire for adult
success. For this, they may want to look back on a previous
generation, the members of which were labeled teenage delinquents when
they first took up a uniform originally created for miners and
cowboys. These were the baby boomers, of course, in their ubiquitous
jeans -- designer versions of which now sell for upwards of $200 a
pop. Remember that the next time a teen's underwear peeks at you above
his or her waistband.
Author's e-mail :
[2]natashawarikoo at hotmail.com
Natasha K. Warikoo is PhD candidate in sociology at Harvard University
and a lecturer in U.S. studies at the University of London.
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