Woman to Woman

Rebuttal

By Shaunti Feldhahn

• Shaunti Feldhahn

As amusing as it is to visualize baby boomers striking a blow for equality, this isn’t about bad taste. And it’s not really about the saggy pant “style” per se either: it’s about what sort of partial public nudity we should tolerate. I could care less about the style, as long as the underwear model is covered up - but that’s often not the case. If you want to wear saggy pants or low-riders that practically show your equipment at a private party, that’s your business. Just don’t make it mine - or my kids’ - by wearing it on the street. I’d prefer to not be confronted with the thoroughness of your bikini wax when I stand next to you at the airport or take my pre-schooler grocery shopping. And neither would most people. That’s why most public decency laws prohibit “partial nudity.”

The trend of cities proposing amendments or new laws suggest that either the original laws aren’t specific enough to keep up with the skin-showing trends, or - more likely — the laws are just fine but we need a collective kick in the saggy pants to enforce them.

Calling this trend a ‘fad,’ as if it’ll shift with the next season lineup from Hilfiger, ignores that this trend hasn’t changed for years. And can anyone argue with a straight face that fashion trends are likely to become more modest?

In Atlanta, C.T. Martin is one city councilman who’s had enough. He recently told the Associated Press that flaunting boxers and thongs is an “epidemic that is becoming a major concern around the country.” The amendment he proposes would allow for stiff fines to get the point across.

In an interview, Dr. Janice Crouse, Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank arm of Concerned Women for America, said we don’t really need new laws: we need to enforce existing ones. Of the low-slung-underwear-and-thong trend she said, “You can definitely make a case that that is partial nudity. All of us know the example of extreme partial nudity, and these are definitely instances of breaking the law. We could definitely make someone an example and that would help curb the problem.”