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 bad attitude and even worse, rebellion. “Only criminal types 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 be a “criminal type.”
I did however recently read a British news article in which a certain style of hoodie was going to be banned. It was a faceless hoodie, one which 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 had been sinister and allowed wearers to completely conceal their identity. I have to admit it was pretty wicked looking and reminded me of someone wearing a gas mask or a full-bodied hazmat suit. It had been camo colored and I simply knew the wearer had a concealed assault rifle somewhere!
This got me considering hoodies in general. After all, why are they frequently 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 concurrently. 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 sometimes when I would lose the neck string inside the sweat shirt also it would take me hours to get it back!
I was thinking about all of 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 common European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? Think about Robin Hood? There was Wilbur Soot Merch . 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? There is really 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 are available wearing a hoodie at some time and time. Even the Mexican Serape could have a hood on it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The 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 minus 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 use a little discernment or common sense but after that I think it just boils down to they’re comfortable, convenient and down right practical. So in the end I will continue to wear my hoodie and hopefully it doesn’t upset anyone.