Little Red Criminal Hoodie

November 24th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

The hoodie is actually a really practical garment. Simply a sweatshirt with a hood attached, sometimes with a zipper. Generally worn by the younger generation they have been around since the 1980s.

In the United States the hoodie is associated with hip hop culture. In Australia they are more associated with surfers. But in the United Kingdom the term hoodies has been adopted to refer to groups of problematic young people, generally boys.

Many UK shopping centers have taken the decision to ban the wearing of hoodies. This is due to their association with crime and the wearer trying to conceal their identity. But a garment doesn’t make someone a criminal.

The media has really latched on to this form of labeling. Hardly a day goes by without hearing reports of hoodie wearing youths or hoodie yobs involved in some sort of alleged criminal behavior. The police routinely deal with calls from the public reporting nothing more than a group of hoodie wearing young people gathering at a bus stop.

Figures show that more than 50% of stories in the press about teenage boys involve crime. In these reports the most common word used to describe the boys is ‘yobs’ followed by ‘thugs’ and often simply the term ‘hoodie’. The only reports in which teenage boys receive sympathetic coverage is if they have died.

This media stereotyping, partially based upon an item of clothing, is having a damaging effect on boys growing up in the UK. They are fearful of one another and many felt that adults were more wary of them these days.

Is this a new phenomenon? Of course not. In the 1950s there were the teddy boys. The 1960s brought the mods and rockers. In the 1970s there were the skinheads. Each had their own signature form of dress.

So is there an answer to the growing trend to demonize young people, boys in particular due to the clothes that they wear? Perhaps we need less surveillance, but many wouldn’t agree. The UK is fast becoming a surveillance state with more cameras per head of population than any other European country.

But hoodies themselves (the garments that is) are not evil. In fact they are practical and stylish. Vans hoodies, for example, come in a variety of styles and materials, ideal for anybody. This might be anohter way to address the issue. Encourage more older people to start wearing them, perhaps with some Rip Curl Tshirts and DC Shoes trainers. Cool.

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