Leggings in a post-#MeToo world: Are they symbols of seduction or freedom?
When did leggings make the leap from garment to cultural lightning rod? For what are essentially stretchy footless tights in a seemingly endless array of patterns and colours, they have been an unexpected source of controversy.
Recently in Indiana, the United states of america, Maryann White, the mother of four sons, wrote a letter to The Observer, the school newspaper for both the University of Notre Dame and the nearby women'due south higher St. Mary's, asking female person students to ignore style and stop wearing leggings. Information technology was for their own as well every bit the greater good, she suggested, in part because leggings made information technology hard for men to control themselves.
The y'all-wear-it/you're-request-for-it implication of the letter, not to mention the sheer idea of censoring clothing, set off the predictable firestorm of protest, both on campus and off. For ii days students wore leggings in a show of group defiance, there was a #leggingsdayND hashtag on Twitter, and assorted men and women posted pictures of themselves in solidarity with leggings wearers.
By the finish of the week, The Observer had some other piece, this 1 from the editors in response to the furore. It said: "Having received over 35 letters to The Observer, in add-on to the countless verbal comments, tweets, memes and grade discussions about Monday's letter, we have been astonished past the conversations the leggings piece has sparked." Meanwhile, those wider conversation continued over the weekend.
This follows a 2022 United Airlines incident when two teenagers who were "pass travellers" (a category that includes relatives of airline employees) were prevented from flying because they were wearing leggings. Observers complained, social media got up in arms, and the makers of leggings had a field day; Puma, for instance, jumped into the fray and burnished its epitome by offering a 20 percent discount on leggings to anyone presenting a United ticket.
And that in turn punctuated the endless debate among parents and schools and students that can exist summed up as "leggings-are-non-pants/yes-they-are."
In general this existential interrogation of the soul of a garment (because, really, that's what information technology is) centres on women, women'south bodies and the general discomfort with seeing besides much of them, or assertive you are.
That's certainly where White was going with her alphabetic character, and it's more often than not the political offence used by those who are on the pro-leggings side: How dare you charge me of dressing to seduce (an statement that has particular resonance in the era after #MeToo).
Just leggings began their rise to wardrobe domination with the appearance of comfort civilisation: The post-coincidental Friday plow-of-the-millennium move abroad from formality that picked up steam with the rise of fleece-wearing hedge funders, the fall of Old Wall Street and the fetishisation of Silicon Valley'southward hoodies- and Teva-clad geniuses, and became even more than pronounced under the influence of the Health movement.
The post-casual Friday turn-of-the-millennium movement away from formality that picked up steam with the rise of fleece-wearing hedge funders, the fall of Onetime Wall Street and the fetishisation of Silicon Valley'southward hoodies- and Teva-clad geniuses, and became even more pronounced under the influence of the Wellness motion.
Leggings too office differently for different age groups: For Gen Y, they tend to be lifestyle signifiers that have more than to practise with health and activeness than, say, everyday workwear; for Gen Z-ers, who largely turn down uniformity and traditional labels, they are simply a basic, the equivalent of jeans. They are something you put on without thought.
Which is to say, leggings are about a lot of things, and sex may be the to the lowest degree of them – if sex plays whatsoever role at all.
I matter that was striking about the Notre Dame protest was the rejection of what they saw as the traditional gender assumptions involved. Leggings are not the sole province of the siren female person was the idea.
In their editorial, The Observer'south writers asked, "Why has the legging controversy generated a larger impact than other controversial topics? Students and community members have spent hours debating the merits and faults of a pop clothing pick. Just where is the willingness to speak up about other issues with substantial policy implications, legally and on campus?"
The truth is, it's possible leggings may be just standing in for those other problems. One of the great gotchas of fashion is that what may announced superficial or unimportant (leggings!) is, in fact, representative of a more complicated, harder to express reality (identity). This is what gives clothes their ability.
As a result, what the leggings uproar may have exposed is not so much anyone's physique per se but rather a cultural fault line that runs through generations. This historical pattern includes miniskirts and jeans, Mary Quant and James Dean, and garments that seemed egregious and inexplicable to what is generally referred to as the establishment but play a primal and highly visual office in upending norms to make way for the next.
Sure, information technology'due south possible that is overstating the thing. It'south possible they are just stretchy footless tights that are easy to clothing.
But judging by Lululemon's recent results, which saw net revenue rise 21 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2018, and the fact that part of Levi's much-heralded IPO was attributed to the "stretch" now included in jeans to cater to the leggings marketplace, this "popular clothing choice" (as The Observer labelled it) is not going away whatsoever time soon. All this suggests that the Notre Dame uproar may non be a fluke but a straw.
For Gen Y, leggings tend to exist lifestyle signifiers that accept more than to do with health and activity than, say, everyday workwear; for Gen Z-ers, who largely reject uniformity and traditional labels, they are simply a basic, the equivalent of jeans.
Past Vanessa Friedman © 2022 The New York Times
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