I met a parent recently that could 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 criminal types put them on” she said. I didn’t agree of course, because I had worn them for years and don’t consider myself to be a “criminal type.”
xxxtentacion merch did however recently read a British news article where a certain style of hoodie would be banned. It had been a faceless hoodie, one which could be zipped up to 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 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 considering hoodies in general. I mean, why are they so often associated with criminal behavior nowadays. It didn’t was previously that way. Didn’t people from all backgrounds just put them on to be casual and stay warm simultaneously. When I was a youngster we just called them sweat shirts with hoods and you either wore a pullover or one which 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’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 during the same time the common European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? Think 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 great deal 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 am saying is just about every stereotype can be found wearing a hoodie at some time and time. Even the Mexican Serape would have a hood on it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The point is that hoodies are for everyone even for boys, and they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do this ourselves with or without the hoodie. Hoodies can be designed with certain colors combinations or logos to identify the wearer with a particular lifestyle or group of people and maybe that is were one needs to use a little discernment or common sense but after that I think it just boils 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 doesn’t upset anyone.