I met a parent recently that could not allow her son to wear a hoodie. bittersweet daze merch said “hoodies for boys are a bad idea”. She felt they promoted a negative attitude and also 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 so however recently read a British news article where a certain style of hoodie was going to be banned. It had been a faceless hoodie, one that could be zipped around completely cover the wearer’s face. It even had two transparent elliptical plastic eyes to look through! Security forces felt it was sinister and allowed wearers to completely conceal their identity. I must admit it was pretty wicked looking and reminded me of someone wearing a gas mask or perhaps a full-bodied hazmat suit. It had been camo colored and I just knew the wearer had a concealed assault rifle somewhere!
This got me thinking about hoodies in general. After all, why are they so often associated with criminal behavior nowadays. It didn’t used to be that way. Didn’t folks from all backgrounds just wear them to be casual and stay warm at the same time. 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 across the front you can lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me at times when I’d lose the neck string inside the sweat shirt and 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 during the same time the average European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? What about Robin Hood? There was Little Red Riding Hood. The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White herself. Of course so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. In fact plenty 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’m saying is just about every stereotype can be found wearing a hoodie at some point and time. Even the Mexican Serape would 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 that ourselves with or minus the hoodie. Hoodies can be made with certain colors combinations or logos to identify the wearer with a certain lifestyle or group and maybe that’s were one needs to work with 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 steadily to wear my hoodie and hopefully it generally does not upset anyone.