美参议员告诫年轻人提好裤子

上世纪90年代开始流行的低腰裤最近受到了一位美国参议员的挑战，他出资2000美元在纽约布鲁克林区的街道上挂出了巨幅广告画，告诫年轻人把裤子提好，这样才能提升自己的形象。这位参议员表示，很多年轻人裤子穿得越来越低，有些甚至低得连内裤都露在外面，他认为这样的衣着有损个人形象，希望通过自己的行为起到警示和告诫的作用。除了户外广告牌，这位参议员还制作了一个视频短片上传到网上，宣称“提起裤子能够提升你的尊严。”其实，这位参议员并不是反对低腰裤的第一人，美国现任总统奥巴马在竞选总统的时候就公开表示不希望看到低腰裤内露出的内裤。美国有些社区甚至通过法案对穿超低腰裤子的人进行罚款。达拉斯的官员也曾经在2007年推出过类似的广告牌告诫行动

Sayinglow-slung pants give their wearers a bad image, a state lawmaker is making the point with some images of his own.

Brooklyn residents awoke Thursday to the sight of two “Stop the Sag” billboards — and more were on the way, organizers said. The signs show two men in jeans low enough to display their underwear. The billboards were bankrolled by state Sen. Eric Adams, who also made an online video to send his message: “You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”

Adams is the latest in a series of politicians and other public figures to lambaste theslack-slacks style that has been popular in some circles since the 1990s and amplified by rappers and other avatars of urban fashion.

The dropped-trousers trend has been debated in TV shows, city councils, school boards, state legislatures and courtrooms and even decried in song: Larry Platt became an Internet sensation earlier this year after he sang his original song “Pants on the Ground” during an “American Idol” audition.

Bill Cosby caused a stir by blasting baggy pants, alongside other things he considered missteps by black youths, at an NAACP event in 2004. President Barack Obama, as a candidate, came out against low-sitting trousers in 2008.

Dallas officials embarked on a “Pull Your Pants Up” billboard campaign in 2007. Some schools have tightened dress codes to get students to tighten their belts. Last summer, a St. Petersburg, Fla., high school principal resorted to ordering thousands of plastic zip ties to help students hitch up their pants.

Some communities have tried outlawing saggy slacks, though such regulations have often faced questions about their legality.

Yet the trend has hung around. Adams decided he had enough after spotting a subway rider in particularly low-riding pair of pants a couple of months ago.

“Everyone on the train was looking at him and shaking their heads. And no one said anything to correct it,” Adams said in a telephone interview this week.

So Adams, a black retired police captain first elected in 2006, tapped his campaign coffers for $2,000 to put up the billboards. He elaborated in his YouTube video, which juxtaposes images of minstrelsy and other racial caricatures with shots of sagging pants — all fuel for troubling stereotypes, in Adams’ view.

Communities from Lynwood, Ill., to Lafourche Parish, La., have passed laws imposing fines for too-low trousers.

Lawmakers in some places have considered such measures but rejected or dropped them amid legal questions. A plan to fine people for pants that exposed their underwear stalled in the Tennessee General Assembly last year, after the state’s attorney general said it was “unconstitutionally vague.” A Florida judge ruled a similar city law unconstitutional in 2008 after a 17-year-old in Riviera Beach spent a night in jail after being accused of having his underwear exposed.

Adams says he doesn’t aim to legislate, just educate.

“I don’t want to criminalize young people being young people,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure we stand up and correct the behavior.”

Still, some of the style’s partisans aren’t sure it merits a politician’s attention.

“I think there’s other things going on besides someone’s pants being low,” said James Scott, 27, of Brooklyn, his jeans sitting jauntily low on his hips.

Vocabulary:

low-slung pants: 低腰裤

slack-slacks style: 松松垮垮的风格