Every once in a while, even a highly skilled, trained and veteran column writer like me thinks, ‘Rut-ro, Raggy. What am I gonna? write about now??
Aside from the easy, Scooby Doo reference, life isn’t a cartoon. Those darned kids aren’t always to blame and things rarely go as scripted like on TV.
So, sometimes I draw a blank. And when that happens, I start going through my list of column idea starters . . .
Weather (it’s at least sunny).
Politics (nobody’s happy).
Seasonally (missed St. Patrick’s Day and Easter is still a little way off).
Kids . . . kids . . . yes, those darned kids! I can write about kids, not mine, mind you, though some readers are always asking about young masters Shamus and Sean Rush.
If you must know, they are not so young and cute anymore. At 17 and 15, they’re kinda? stinky. Oh, they’re smart and funny and kind and good-looking . . . but they sweat a lot more than they did when they were young and cute.
No, I may be talking (writing) about your kids. Your kids if they are daughters and if you let your daughters over the age of 10 wear yoga pants. They may be comfortable as all get out, but aside from wearing them at the gym or around the house, they are kinda? inappropriate.
I know, I know.
Some of you are working yourselves up into a whirling dervish of outlandish rage.
Let me try and vent your growing negative emotions about me before those feelings overcome you: I am not a creepy old guy on the prowl for cheap thrills.
I have watched the growing popularity of yoga pants over the past two or three years. More and more high school-age girls walk down Main Street wearing those tight, stretchy pull-up stocking-like pants than ever before.
On a recent Saturday, I helped out the Destination Imagination folks at Waterford Mott High School. Destination Imagination encourages kids from kindergarten through high school to be creative and think ‘outside the box? to solve problems.
Teams of kids from area schools then compete against one another. It was fun. It was long (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). It was entertaining and it was educational. It seemed like there were a million kids and their parents there.
Yet, I was shocked by the number of teen-aged girls of all shapes and sizes running around in yoga pants. You can only turn your head away and look at the ceiling while walking down the hallway for so long before you run into somebody or a wall. And if you are looking in front of you, it looks like you’re checking out whoever is in front of you.
Moms, Dads . . . yes, I am talking to you both . . . you know yoga pants put on display for the entire world to see, the shape and every contour of your daughter’s undercarriage — front and back — don’t you?
I know this is America and folks should be able to wear what they want. They should be able to wear what makes them feel good.
I don’t want to shut down anybody’s personality, creativity or individuality. And, I do not want to ‘push? any sort of Puritan morality.
I believe women, young and old, should be able to wear what they chose without fear of being leered at, ogled or victimized.
That said, young women are ‘sexualized? enough beginning at a young age in commercials, movies, TV shows and print ads all telling them what and who they should be.
Form-fitting yoga pants only exacerbates the issue. Would you want your daughters to wear the same type of stuff on their tops?
Imagine if the breast-revealing equivalent of yoga pants for tops ever came into fashion. (I should probably check out the Paris, New York and LA fashion magazines to make sure it isn’t a style coming down the pike.)
I talked to one local mom, who is by no means a prude, and her comment was something like this, ‘The only person I want to see my daughter’s (blankity blank) is no one.?
This mom is a rather open-minded and progressive woman but, she is still a mom. She gave me this fashion tip to pass onto you: Young ladies, wear a skirt or dress over the yoga pants — if only to keep the creepy old guys at bay.
Okay. There. I got it out. I wrote a column when I had no idea what to write about. I made my point, drew proverbial my line in the sand. What are your thoughts? Email your ideas, concerns and thoughts to me, Don@ShermanPublications.org.