#625 Jeans and Genetics

Ah, fashion.
I was reading an article about some town in the south that was banning sagging trousers. Seems the powers that be had finally gotten sick of young men belting their capacious trousers around their knees, with possibly objectionable exposure, and were gosh darnit going to find a legislative solution.
Yawn.
That’ll just make it worse. The sag, while amazingly persistent to this point, is going to fade like acid-washed parachute pants.
Why?
Because they look ridiculous? No.
Because the young men are going to get tired living life with essentially no hands, because one is holding up their pants and one is holding their cellphone or adjusting their Ipod? No.
People are amazingly tolerant of discomfort if it’s a fashion statement. Look at pointy-toed high heels; the American woman’s answer to Chinese foot-binding.
Or the tight OP shorts from the seventies. Men wore the heck out of those, even though a hot day would often create a possibly illegal exposure situation too. OP shorts were not tasteful for men who wore boxers.
We are, myself included, crazy when it comes to fashion. Because it’s sexual plumage. Protest all you will about classic styles and practical this-and-that, it all comes down to displaying your personality through your clothes.
And that’s all about the mating ritual. Propagation of the species. Plumage.
And fortunately for the fashion industry, we are, unlike animals, not stuck with what we’re born with in the way of plumage.
We can acid wash it and we can distress it. We can brighten it to a rainbow of neon, or dull it to a muted palette of earth tones. We can Goth-black it or dress in a plain white sack and say we’re swearing off sex altogether. Any way you shake it we’re proclaiming our mate-ability.
Are we hip? Sex in a zip.
Are we boring? Sex then snoring.
Are we steady and reliable and conforming? Sex probably won’t happen in the morning.
Are we clever with accessorizing? Um, break out the toys.
Sagging jeans will fade, but sex genes? Fashion makes them permanent.
America, ya gotta love it