Boxer Short fashion under fire...Don't allow the boxer short police stop fashion!!

Airplane fashion is flying in circles, leaving women feeling exhausted

I haven’t always conformed to what’s considered fashionable or appropriate. While I may be an avid watcher of the American version of “What Not to Wear,” I am pretty sure the co-hosts would sometimes cringe at what I believe looks good on me.

As I’ve gotten older, what I’ve deemed appropriate has slowly changed to include fewer mini-skirts, less green eye shadow and no spaghetti straps, at least at work. But I still stubbornly cling to the idea that I’d rather be caught at the grocery store in three-inch heels and a vintage skirt than in the typical Corvallis uniform of sweat pants, flip-flops and over-sized T-shirts.

While we have all internalized what looks good and bad to us on other people — and on ourselves — and while we might sometimes wish to whisk a co-worker off to a full makeover, most folks do not impose their fashion beliefs onto other people.

Professors might complain about seeing visible thongs and boxer shorts in their classroom, but unless it’s really causing a disruption, they usually just grumble under their breath or to other faculty. And a majority of bosses will look the other way if the occasional open-toed sandal or dark washed jean appears on a non-casual Friday.

It’s when the definition of inappropriate actually interferes with normal life that things get sticky. Last week, fashion became news when a young woman in a sweater and mini-skirt was nearly kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight because a male attendant deemed her attire “skimpy.” The 23-year-old was on a day trip and had no extra clothing to change into, but in order to not miss her flight, she agreed to tug down her skirt and pull her sweater closed.

The irony of this was not missed by bloggers, who pointed out that several decades ago, Southwest demanded that its stewardesses wear uniforms with skirts nearly as short that of the 23-year-old, and white go-go boots as well. Today, with roles reversed, airlines are no longer sexualizing their own attendants; instead, they’re allowing them to pass judgment on passengers who are deemed not “family friendly.”

The uproar around this issue points to the continuing battle over women’s bodies, and how they are clothed or unclothed, depending on the desires or prudery of the observer. At her day job at “Hooters,” the 23-year-old caters to customers who are paying to watch her in revealing attire, and yet on her own, wearing an outfit deemed skimpy by a stranger, she’s humiliated in front of an airplane full of people.

In a world full of advertising, television shows, music videos and movies that continue, decades after the women’s movement, to show women’s bodies as sexual objects, I guess it’s difficult to look at female legs or curves and not immediately think of sex. The same uproar takes place when women are breastfeeding in public, because even when breasts are being used for their biological function, we Americans seem unable to separate a breast’s exposure for functionality with that of sexual titillation.

Women, it seems, don’t get to choose when they are viewed as sexual and when they are not. A woman in a full-length business suit may be feeling sexually empowered and invigorated, while a woman in a mini skirt may simply be seeking relief from the Arizona heat. But dangerously exposed flesh immediately provokes a strong response from outsiders, who seem to think that their opinion of what’s appropriate is the only one that matters
Holiday Boxer Shorts - Christmas, Halloween, valentines, st. patricks day, fathers day

For me, sagging is a spectacle that defies the forces of physics - like water flowing uphill or plants growing from rocks.

When I see a kid flashing six inches of boxer shorts, I just can't imagine how his pants stay up. It seems to me that once the waistband wanders south of the hips it would become unstoppable.

Kenneth Moore, a behavior specialist at Lansing's Otto Middle School, sees sagging a little differently - as a "very big distraction to the educational process."
Or at least he did. On Wednesday, Moore called me to ask for help in his anti-sagging initiative. I, in the name of gravity, agreed.

The next day, for reasons unknown, Moore, in another phone call, withdrew his request. Reasonably, at first, but with escalating belligerence.

When I told Moore I planned to proceed with this column, he assured me he had witnesses who would verify his demand that I abandon it.

here was no need for witnesses. I freely admit he demanded it.

Then, Moore made references to the district's "legal consultants," implying court action against me if I failed to follow his instructions.

Ultimately, he hung up on me.

Curious behavior, I thought, for a behavior specialist.

No excuses

But anyway, Moore originally wanted me to help him collect belts. His plan was to keep a cache of them at Otto, so when a student explained his sagging pants by saying he didn't own a belt, Moore could nullify that excuse by handing one to the kid.

It would be a more efficient alternative, Moore said, to writing warning letters and sending kids home. That makes sense, in a "whatever works" sort of way.

Sagging, Moore said, has been on the rise at Otto, so to speak. He estimated 50 percent of boys ages 11 to 14 at the school follow the fashion. And the trend is strictly downhill.

"In some cases, it's indecent exposure," Moore said.

Prison roots

Sagging - the pants kind, that is - is believed to have originated in U.S. prisons. Inmates issued poorly fitting uniforms - but no belts because of the risk of suicide - had no choice but to let their pants droop. It became a popular urban culture style through hip-hop.

The prison connection is part of why Moore - and many others - believe sagging sends a negative message. Many school districts throughout the country prohibit it, and several legislative bodies have, with varying degrees of success, tried to make it illegal.

I don't know if the entire anti-sagging initiative is defunct or just the request for belts. But if and when the folks at Otto get students to pull up their pants, they can turn their attention to tank tops, muscle shirts, spaghetti straps, pajamas and all the other land mines waiting to blow highly distractible minds.

Then, perhaps, they can focus more energy on something like, you know, education.