The Folly of Fads

Fads are foolish. Although some fads and fashion trends are “harmless” and really don’t seem to harm anything, there are some which are potentially dangerous and otherwise harmful. In the Scarlet Pimpernel, the fad to follow was the Scarlet Pimpernel himself. People enjoyed the thrill of following his every move, and anticipating what he would do next. They could root for either him, or France, and they could guess as to what his next escape would be. This particular fad wasn’t necessarily bad, because it mostly just gave people something to hope in. But there are lots of things that people might not realize are bad to participate in. One example, a very familiar one, is baggy pants. Although it may seem a relatively innocent trend in men’s fashions, however strange and annoying it is to some people, the origin of this trend makes it seem much less okay to those who know what it is. While many people believe that the wearing of baggy pants originated from inmates in prisons who were advertising their “sexual availability” that is probably not true. It is possible that this was the case for some inmates, but that rumor has been discredited by most. The prominent theory now is that it did start in prisons, but not by available gays. According to several sources including the Chicago Tribune, the wearing of saggy pants began with ill-fitting prison-issue clothing. Some detainees were supplied with clothing several sizes too large, and they weren’t given belts to keep them up with. Belts aren’t permitted in correctional facilities because of the rate of suicides by hanging, and because they can too easily be used as weapons. Saggy pants on inmates also came from the inmates getting skinnier in prison from either diet, or increased exercise. Most trends and fads aren’t really concerning, but keeping up the lazy tradition of wearing clothing too large on purpose, and because it came from prisons, It is probably for the better that boys and men keep