NTSAME ASSOUMOU Paulene-Wendy Professor K.McKay En 130-3 1 May 2009 BAGGY JEANS: A JAIL TREND GENERATION? Audience: Parents, students. We can take for example the positive and pacifist spirit of long haired hippies wearing sunglasses during the mid-1960, or we can mention the groove and the motto: “I feel good” of funk music fans with their Afro style haircut; one thing remains: Young generations have always been official carrier of fashion! During the 1930`s to be a real rock n roll rebel as James Dean, your blue jeans had to be tight and completely cover your bellybutton. But from now on, it does not matter if you are on the way of your University early in the morning, if you are playing basketball later in the afternoon or going to your student job in the evening: to “be in”, your trousers have to be at least twice your regular size and sometimes reveal your bottom. Even if the baggy jeans is a trend that everybody knows as “viewers” like parents for example or as “wearers”, it is usually young people between 15 and 28 years old, not everyone knows where does this tendency comes from. “I know what you are going to say, said a Missouri Valley College Student while I was doing a survey on that question, my mother always tells me to pull up my pants because I look like a thief or an offender as this way of dressing comes from jail!”. Indeed, baggy jeans are part of a relic of prison culture where inmates are not given belts with their baggy uniform pants to prevent hangings and beatings (Fashion Police para7). Some people call it fad, but for the city of Flint Michigan, that urban style known as “sagging” is now a criminal offense (Fashion Police). According to Newsweek journal article of July 2008 , David Dicks, Flint new police chief, has ordered his officers to start arresting “saggers” because it is a “national nuisance” (Fashion Police para2). Three months later, Today’s journal blog published an article about a 17-year-old