Ali Jackson | Still playing dress-up as adults
Leggings aren't just a harmless fashion trend - they're transforming grown women into children
· February 12, 2007, 5:00 am
It doesn't matter who you are - you've seen them.
I'm sure nearly half of you actually own them (I'll admit I do).
They're out there, walking among us. Everyone has an opinion on them, ranging from "gotta have 'em" to "burn them at the stake."
They're leggings - and they're taking over.
If you have eyes and you've been alive over the past two years, you've seen what I'm talking about. Suddenly, where jeans and khakis once ruled, spandex is popping up on legs everywhere. Black, white, patterned . it knows no bounds.
For the past couple of years, I've seen the leggings, worn the leggings, despised the leggings - but it's only recently that I've started thinking about where they came from and why, dear god why, they've turned into the pants substitute they are today.
Girls, think back to elementary school. I'm talking side ponytails, Scrunchies, L.A. Lights sneakers, homemade T-shirts, and - that's right - leggings. They were everywhere. I remember feeling snazzy in my hot-pink and electric-blue unicorn leggings.
I'm sure all the boys wanted me.
But the thing is, kids can pull that sort of thing off. We didn't need to wear shirts long enough to cover our butts because, let's face it, we didn't have butts.
Sociology professor David Grazian, who teaches the ever-popular class "Sociology of Media and Popular Culture," agreed.
"Kids are free to wear all kinds of clothing because we don't regard them as sexual beings," he said.
Now, however, it's a different story. Suddenly my second-grade outfit is looking pretty enticing - at least if we're basing our tastes off fashion magazines.
"They're convincing women that they have to look childlike in order to be feminine," Grazian said. "It's disturbing, not to mention disempowering."
College sophomore Ilana Sinkin is a big fan of the leggings trend. In fact, she lists them as an interest on Facebook.com.
"They're in the magazines a lot more lately," she said. "That's what caught my eye, so I started wearing them."
When I asked her if she would ever wear leggings without a sweater or dress long enough to cover her butt, her reaction was vehement.
"Oh, no, no, no," she exclaimed. "I prefer not seeing so much, leaving a little to the imagination."
Unfortunately, fashion executives have made their decision - kid is in.
"In 2006, the fashion industry heavily marketed an almost-childlike femininity to women of all ages," Grazian said. "Leggings, flats, miniskirts, bangs - these are all things popular among young girls. It makes it seem more fashionable for women to regress and at the same time it sexualizes clothing meant for small children."
I'm sure many of you can think of an ad campaign you've seen recently where the models are dressed in baby doll dresses or leggings and posed innocently, like little girls.
The fact that intelligent, adult women are dressing like children in order to look sexy is just plain wrong. No one would want their baby sister looked at sexually, so why are we dressing like her?
I tried to speak to girls around campus wearing leggings as pants in the dead of winter, but for some reason they declined to comment. Go figure.
At the heart of the issue, going to class with paper-thin spandex as the only barrier between you and the world is just inappropriate. I mean, really. No one needs to see that.
"The thing I have against it is if you don't look good in them," Sinkin said. "Some girls can pull it off - but most can't."
I know I can't, nor do I want to. I don't care how toned your butt or thighs are - no one should be walking around like that. Especially not in the arctic tundra that our campus has become recently.
However comfortable these leggings might be (and believe me, I'm as big a fan of spandex as the next girl), by using them as pants we're turning Locust Walk into a meat market where anyone and everyone can see the junk you're storing in your trunk.
Didn't your mother ever warn you that no one will buy the cow when they can get the milk for free?
Come on, say it with me. Leggings are not pants. Again. Leggings are not pants.
So here's the deal. From now on, we're going to institute a law. It's called Illegal Legging Use, and you all have the jurisdiction to stop it and prosecute any offenders.
I hereby declare this campus a butt-cheek-free zone.
Ali Jackson is a Wharton and College sophomore from Cardiff, Calif. Her e-mail address is jackson@dailypennsylvanian.com. A Little Person-Ali-ty appears on Mondays.
Comments (14)
THANK YOU.
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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So, so true. Great article.
Julian
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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This is a good article that underlines a very disturbing trend amongst American girls. The leggings fad shows how much excessive sexuality has pervaded our society; it is now becoming acceptable for girls to indecently exhibit their bodies by wearing very tight and thin leggings. This corrupts the mind of men and reduces the self-worth of women. It is yet another indicator of the greater trend of moral decline in American youth. Gratuitous sexuality, abortion, feminism, homosexuality, alcohol, and drugs have all become accepted amongst young people in this country. Why can't today's youth stand up for decency and morality? Why can't they accept the tradition Judeo-Christian values that this country was built upon, where women were respected, sex was a private matter between married individuals, and marriage was sacred? Instead, they fall prey to decadence, sensual pleasure, and the pursuit of self-satisfaction. I fear for the future of this country.
Rational Conservative
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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[QUOTE id="338b3653-6264-43bb-96eb-277e4a7e01bb"]Gratuitous sexuality, abortion, feminism, homosexuality, alcohol, and drugs have all become accepted amongst young people in this country.[/QUOTE] Don't you realize that comments like that alienate others and make them less likely to support your viewpoint? You will contribute more to your causes by just being quiet. Less polarizing individuals bringing up one or two of your points might get a reaction, but only if people's opinions haven't already been hardened by condescening preaching like this.
Help!
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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Rational Conservative, you are another proof of the fact that conservatives are not only complete morons but also lack any sense for irony.
Julian
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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[QUOTE id="76fc035a-ea51-4d10-91bb-d7f759b093a8"]Rational Conservative, you are another proof of the fact that conservatives are not only complete morons but also lack any sense for irony.[/QUOTE] And you are yet more proof that many Americans lack any sense of moral direction. My original post was serious, not satirical. Sorry if the message wasn't conveyed clearly enough.
The Voice of Reason
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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The leggings fad shows how much excessive sexuality has pervaded our society; it is now becoming acceptable for girls to indecently exhibit their bodies by wearing very tight and thin leggings. Why does our society consider the female body to be an indecent and obscene thing? What kind of message are we sending when academics claim that women reverting to form-fitting, 'childish' fashion trends is disturbing and a sign of their disempowerment? This is puritanical shame of the human body masquerading as some kind of feminist fashion critique. If women at Penn want to wear leggings, they should wear leggings. And they shouldn't be made to feel ashamed of their bodies or that their clothing choices give society carte blanche to objectify them as a result.
Help!
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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Julian, so you are only another proof that conservatives are complete morons. But thanks for the good laugh. I loved the "my post was serious and not satirical", that is utterly hilarious!! Keep on the good posts.
An Elderly Gentleman
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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I think this article is based on a faulty premise. Yes, you remember leggings as something you wore in elementary school. This is because you, as (I assume) a college student, were in elementary school in the early 1990s, when leggings were last in fashion. At that time--or at least a few years earlier, in the mid-1980s--leggings came into fashion as something worn by adult women. Eventually the fashion got passed on to the kids, but there's nothing inherently childlilke about them. Spandex leggings have long been an overtly, aggressively sexual garment for adults, as a casual survey of popular culture of the early 1980s will reveal. Then, like all such trends, they get passed on to the kids. The same thing happened with miniskirts, another once-icon of steamy sexuality that you cite in your article as a tame children's item. This is not a sexualization of children; it's just eighties nostalgia. I can assure you that to people not of your generation, it would be the little kids in leggings and miniskirts who looked out of place, not the adult women.
Kelly
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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This article is ridiculous. No, really. Even Sienna Miller figured out that leggings are back out of fashion already.
senior
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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Gratuitous sexuality, abortion, feminism, homosexuality, alcohol, and drugs have all become accepted amongst young people in this country. Did no one notice that Julian lumped feminism and homosexuality with alcohol and drugs - suddenly feminism is a vice? i understand there are mixed opinions about homosexuality, but your comment it a bit bigoted and reminiscent of Trent Lott. you two should meet - I think you would get along well.
Will
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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[QUOTE id="338b3653-6264-43bb-96eb-277e4a7e01bb"]This is a good article that underlines a very disturbing trend amongst American girls. The leggings fad shows how much excessive sexuality has pervaded our society; it is now becoming acceptable for girls to indecently exhibit their bodies by wearing very tight and thin leggings. This corrupts the mind of men and reduces the self-worth of women. It is yet another indicator of the greater trend of moral decline in American youth. Gratuitous sexuality, abortion, feminism, homosexuality, alcohol, and drugs have all become accepted amongst young people in this country. Why can't today's youth stand up for decency and morality? Why can't they accept the tradition Judeo-Christian values that this country was built upon, where women were respected, sex was a private matter between married individuals, and marriage was sacred? Instead, they fall prey to decadence, sensual pleasure, and the pursuit of self-satisfaction. I fear for the future of this country.[/QUOTE] Yes sexuality has become a mainstream of society. It is a change that you will have to accept and one that I'm sure many of us do enjoy. If you think back to the 60s and the war protests, I'm sure there were a lot of people hesitant of the direction of society. People who viewed war protests as dishonorable actions that went against the morals and ethics of the country. There is indeed something called free speech and the right to expression of one's ideas that has allowed mainstream society to evolve into the form it takes in the present. If you don't like girls in tight spandex, then I guess that's you. If you follow the traditions of the church, go right ahead. Personally, I don't believe in God. Thus, we are two separate people who have differing ideals. But one thing that I haven't done is insisted that you loosen up. Everyone has their beliefs. Right now it appears that you stand alone here, but then so be it. No one here is conforming to any direction.
nobody
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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new idea: wear your leggings UNDER your real pants because it's so cold out. there, no added bulk with the extra warmth, and you don't feel like you wasted money on the latest trend.
Self Worth
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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I think these kids do this because they have self worth issues. Teens see at an early age that if you want to be noticed, then you have to show a little skin to the world. It is sad really. [QUOTE id="338b3653-6264-43bb-96eb-277e4a7e01bb"]This is a good article that underlines a very disturbing trend amongst American girls. The leggings fad shows how much excessive sexuality has pervaded our society; it is now becoming acceptable for girls to indecently exhibit their bodies by wearing very tight and thin leggings. This corrupts the mind of men and reduces the self-worth of women. It is yet another indicator of the greater trend of moral decline in American youth. Gratuitous sexuality, abortion, feminism, homosexuality, alcohol, and drugs have all become accepted amongst young people in this country. Why can't today's youth stand up for decency and morality? Why can't they accept the tradition Judeo-Christian values that this country was built upon, where women were respected, sex was a private matter between married individuals, and marriage was sacred? Instead, they fall prey to decadence, sensual pleasure, and the pursuit of self-satisfaction. I fear for the future of this country.[/QUOTE]
RSM
December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm
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Leggings are fine as pants and they are very comfortable. ItÃ?s time that we ALL wear leggings. Get over the fashionista and body image constraints and just wear them. You know you want to, you know they'll be more comfortable than the constrictive pants and jeans you wear now. Go for it. Enjoy the fit, feel and look of leggings - just wear them. Everyone looks good in leggings and some look great. Choose a well made pair - not with cotton fibers that bag out over time but a high tech fiber that retains its shape. Go for the comfort and support. Leggings that go to the ankle have a greater positive visual aesthetic than capri style that chop the leg. Plus the full length leggings support you from your ankle to your waist and give you an energetic lift. Check out www.UnJeans.com
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