I met a parent recently that would not allow her son to wear a hoodie. She said “hoodies for boys are a bad idea”. She felt they promoted a negative attitude and also worse, rebellion. “Only criminal types wear them” she said. I didn’t agree of course, because I had worn them for a long time and don’t consider myself to be a “criminal type.”
I did 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 up to 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 totally conceal their identity. I must admit it was pretty wicked looking and reminded me of someone wearing a gas mask or a full-bodied hazmat suit. It was camo colored and I simply 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 now days. It didn’t was previously that way. Didn’t people from all backgrounds just wear them 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 which 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 would lose the neck string in the sweat shirt also it would take me hours to obtain 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. Needless to say so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. In fact many 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 merely 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 main point is that hoodies are for everybody even for boys, plus they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do that ourselves with or without the hoodie. Backwoods Hoodie can be designed with certain colors combinations or logos to recognize the wearer with a particular 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’re comfortable, convenient and down right practical. So ultimately I will continue to wear my hoodie and hopefully it generally does not upset anyone.