I met a parent recently that would 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 wear them” she said. I didn’t agree needless to say, because I had worn them for years and don’t consider myself to become a “criminal type.”
I did so 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 that 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 completely conceal their identity. I have to admit it had been 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. I mean, why are they so often associated with criminal behavior nowadays. It didn’t used to be that way. Didn’t people from all backgrounds just put them on to be casual and stay warm concurrently. When I was a youngster we just called them sweat shirts with hoods and you either wore a pullover or one that zipped up. I thought the pockets were what made them cool, one big one across the front you could lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me sometimes when I would lose the neck string inside the sweat shirt and 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 is Little Red Riding Hood. The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White herself. Needless to say so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. In real vlone shirt ! What 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 onto it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The point is that hoodies are for everybody even for boys, plus they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do this ourselves with or minus the hoodie. Hoodies can be designed with certain colors combinations or logos to identify the wearer with a certain lifestyle or group and maybe that is were one needs to use a little discernment or common sense but after that I believe it just boils right down to they are comfortable, convenient and down right practical. So in the end I will continue to wear my hoodie and hopefully it generally does not upset anyone.