I met a parent recently that could 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 Simson Schwalbe Hoodie wear them” she said. I didn’t agree needless to say, because I had worn them for a long time and don’t consider myself to become a “criminal type.”
I did however recently read a British news article in which a certain style of hoodie was going to be banned. It was a faceless hoodie, one which could be zipped around completely cover the wearer’s face. It even had two transparent elliptical plastic eyes to check through! Security forces felt it was sinister and allowed wearers to completely conceal their identity. I must admit it had been 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. I mean, why are they so often associated with criminal behavior now days. It didn’t used to be that way. Didn’t people from all backgrounds just put them on to be casual and stay warm simultaneously. 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 could lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me sometimes when I would lose the neck string inside the sweat shirt also it would take me hours to get it back!
I was thinking about all the famous or notorious personalities through history who wore hoodies. There was medieval monks, they wore sort ‘a corny looking dark pullover with hoods. And during the same time the common European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? What about Robin Hood? There is 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 a great deal of witches ware hoodies! What about Shrek… and Rocky? Now there is really a couple or hero types that wore a hoodies (and a beanie in Rocky’s case). What I am saying is just about every stereotype are available wearing a hoodie at some point and time. Even the Mexican Serape could have a hood on it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The point is that hoodies are for everyone even for boys, and they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do this 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 of people and maybe that’s were one needs to use 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 in the end I will continue steadily to wear my hoodie and hopefully it generally does not upset anyone.