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Notes -
There’s periodic discussions of one, particular, item commonly on dress codes.
Sagging. For those not in the know, it’s a (very black coded) fashion in which the pants sag down enough to reveal the undergarments, or these days often basketball shorts worn underneath regular pants. I see plenty of ‘no sagging’ signs at businesses, although not usually high end ones(those people wouldn’t go to such anyways). This is sometimes controversial because it’s black coded, but a) no one wants to see it and b) blacks who object to sagging are reliably of the better sort while whites who engage in it are reliably trailer trash. A few municipalities have carried out campaigns against sagging- Dallas ran a series of billboards with the slogan ‘big mama says- pull ‘em up’ a while back. These campaigns are routinely mocked by people who, themselves, view sagging as uncouth ridiculosity.
What I think gets left out is that clothes send a message and the act of sending a message is one which reinforces the truthfulness thereof. In a certain sense the spread of the sagging fashion convinces people who do it to act more like they have neck tattoos, and jeans and a ball cap convince people to act more salt of the earth, and dressing like a harlot convinces a woman to act more like one. All of these statements are controversial because there is a truthfulness to them; our fashion choices are conformity with other people who follow the same fashion choices.
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