I met a parent recently that would not allow her son to wear a hoodie. She said “hoodies for boys certainly are a bad idea”. She felt they promoted a bad 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 however recently read a British news article in which a certain style of hoodie would 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 had been 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 nowadays. It didn’t was previously that way. Didn’t folks from all backgrounds just wear them to be casual and stay warm simultaneously. When I was a kid we just called them sweat shirts with hoods and you also either wore a pullover or one which zipped up. I thought the pockets were what made them cool, one big one over the front you could lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me at times when I’d lose the neck string inside the sweat shirt also 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 common 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. Actually plenty of witches ware hoodies! Think 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 onto it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!
The main point is that hoodies are for everyone even for boys, plus they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do that ourselves with or minus the hoodie. Hoodies can be designed with certain colors combinations or logos to recognize the wearer with a particular lifestyle or group of people and maybe that is were one needs to work with a little discernment or common sense but after that I think 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 doesn’t upset anyone.