Hoodies For Boys – Aren’t They A Good Idea?

I met a parent recently that could not allow her son to wear a hoodie. She said “hoodies for boys are a bad idea”. She felt they promoted a bad attitude and even worse, rebellion. “Only criminal types wear them” she said. I didn’t agree of course, because I had worn them for years and don’t consider myself to become a “criminal type.”

I did so however recently read a British news article in which a certain style of hoodie was going to be banned. It had been a faceless hoodie, one which could be zipped around completely cover the wearer’s face. It even had two transparent elliptical plastic eyes to look through! Security forces felt it was sinister and allowed wearers to completely conceal their identity. I have to admit it was pretty wicked looking and reminded me of someone wearing a gas mask or perhaps a full-bodied hazmat suit. It was camo colored and I simply knew the wearer had a concealed assault rifle somewhere!

This got me thinking about hoodies in general. I mean, why are they frequently associated with criminal behavior now days. It didn’t used to be that way. Didn’t folks from all backgrounds just put them on to be casual and stay warm simultaneously. When I was a youngster we just called them sweat shirts with hoods and you also either wore a pullover or one that zipped up. I thought the pockets were what made them cool, one big one over the front you could lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me sometimes when I would lose the neck string in the sweat shirt and it would take me hours to get it back!

I was thinking about all the famous or notorious personalities through history who wore hoodies. There is medieval monks, they wore sort ‘a corny looking dark pullover with hoods. And through the same time the average European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? Think about Robin Hood? There was Little Red Riding Hood. The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White herself. Needless to say so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. Actually plenty of witches ware hoodies! What about Shrek… and Rocky? There is really vlone or hero types that wore a hoodies (and a beanie in Rocky’s case). What I’m saying is just about every stereotype are available wearing a hoodie at some time and time. Even the Mexican Serape would have a hood onto it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!

The point is that hoodies are for everybody even for boys, and they don’t make anybody good or bad. We do this ourselves with or minus the hoodie. Hoodies can be made with certain colors combinations or logos to recognize the wearer with a certain lifestyle or group of people and maybe that is were one needs to work with a little discernment or common sense but after that I believe it just boils down to they are comfortable, convenient and down right practical. So ultimately I will continue to wear my hoodie and hopefully it doesn’t upset anyone.