By Ayami Kanazawa

What would you think if you were fined just for the way you dressed? Recently, the number of states in the U.S. with laws aimed at people who wear saggy pants that expose their skin or underwear has been increasing. The states fine violators or even imprison them. In Mansfield, Louisiana, for example, fines can be $150 and jail terms can be as long as fifteen days. In Delcambre, Louisiana fines can be up to $500 and jail terms can be as long as six months. Many big cities like Atlanta, Georgia have also started discussing implementing similar laws.

Originally, this baggy pants style was an imitation of prison dress. It spread among Blacks and Hispanics in the poor parts of big cities, and then spread through hip-hop music around the world. At first it was common to wear pants showing the waist, but recently people are wearing them so low you can see their buttocks. This seems to have led to these regulations.

The saggy pants style is popular among Japanese junior and senior high school boys. And like the U.S., adults here in Japan want kids to stop wearing them because they are tacky. In Japan, however, even though TV and newspapers warned and advised youths about this fashion, they continue to wear saggy pants because arguments have rarely developed to laws and regulations. This is because people cannot argue against the idea that fashion is a personal freedom, and adults may think that it will soon disappear because fashion trends tend to change quickly among youths.

If this is so, why would laws be passed in the U.S.? It is because there is another sideﾑthe conservative face of "freedom" in the U.S. These regulations were made from the citizensﾕ complaints and their feelings of wanting to stop this shameful way of dressing. Perhaps, it may be a freedom in another meaning that the majority does not approve of such a thing in their community.

I think it is great that the voice of inhabitants materializes in the form of laws in a democratic society. However, with regulations intended to enforce fashion codes it is easy to claim personal freedom, and they can find a loophole easily, like pulling up their pants when police are near.

It seems the vicious cycle of adults versus youths will continue. In order to settle this argument it is important for adults and youths to talk to each other while this saggy pants fashion is still popular.