Yoga pants are not a civil right

-Fender- · 2014-04-03T03:58:40+00:00

I find this refreshing. A mainstream article openly criticising feminists, and arguing in favour of (what should be) common sense. Good for this author.

M4Strings · 2014-04-03T00:32:28+00:00

All that should really matter is that something is causing a distraction and that needs to be addressed. It's the same as when cellphones became really popular and commonplace, they banned use in schools because it was a distraction. Simple as that.

Shlapper · 2014-04-03T07:51:22+00:00

The whole issue of the school claiming that the yoga pants were distracting to boys wasn't verbatim from either school administration or school policy. It was a single quote from one 13-year-old girl, who (surprise, surprise) just happened to have a mother who was very familiar with and supportive of feminist theory, including rape culture, which she accused the school of supporting.

This whole thing was blown out of proportion by a group of whinging teenage girls and their parents who used sensationalist tactics to get what they want and not what they agreed to.

iethatis · 2014-04-03T09:04:41+00:00

I find it interesting that Eliana Dockterman thinks that 13 year old females are women, while 13 year old males are boys.

FlavorfulCondomints · 2014-04-03T02:09:02+00:00

Where is the "yoga pants* are not appropriate for school?" That's really all that parents need to tell their kids. Some forms of dress are not appropriate in certain places.

No really, this should not be a gender debate. It's public school, there's a dress code. Get over it.

*Along with uncovered speedos (in class, not in the pool), t-shirts with profanity and drug content, revealing clothing, etc.

newSuperHuman · 2014-04-03T00:06:11+00:00

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wanked_in_space · 2014-04-03T07:03:45+00:00

I wonder what would happen if guys started wearing speedos to class. I'm certain the ban on that, for likely the same reasoning, would garner no rape culture comments.

Quarri · 2014-04-03T15:01:44+00:00

I don't think I have ever read or heard of a story were a schools attempt to tone down girls sexuality has ever gone over well with parents.

Why has it been decided that tights are the same thing as pants?

DeathPreys · 2014-04-03T00:45:58+00:00

I would start wearing Leotards to school everyday

fluxBurns · 2014-04-03T19:28:27+00:00

I would agree with people that yoga pants are not at all suitable for girls to wear to school or even suited to a business/education environment. Whether you accept it or not, clothes beyond basic covering are a form of signalling. Whether that be expensive clothing, fashionable clothing etc; they are designed to put out a message about the wearer or at least attract attention to them. In our cultural context, yoga pants are seen as sexy, plain and simple. Sexy is cool, but not for kids and not for people in a learning environment. They are designed to show off your body and while that is great at sometimes, it is bad for kids at school.

I would have the same reaction to a young boy wearing tight muscle tops to school. Or how about if boys wore yoga pants too, and you had to constantly avert your eyes away from their crotches.

Secondly, young girls are fiercely competitive about their identities and looks. Can you imagine the overweight girl in the class being ridiculed by other girls because of her shape or the girl that starts developing early getting being the object of hatred or jealousy? What about when a girl suddenly gets a lot of attention (male or female) because of how 'grown up' her body is? These are unhealthy life lessons to learn so young.

Clothing like this encourages young women/girls to find their worth and identity in their bodies and sexualities at a time when they should be finding their value in their education.

richardnorth · 2014-04-03T14:43:52+00:00

This shit is getting RIDICULOUS.

This particular topic makes me furious, honestly. I have been called a prude for several years (I'm a 29 year old heterosexual male) because I express a dislike for this whole yoga pants trend. I am an ass man, I love seeing a nice ass. But yoga pants have gone too far.

EVERYONE wears them. 5 year olds all the way up to 90 year olds. They are worn as casual wear, they are worn in clubs, they are also part of the work uniform for most places nowadays it seems (Fast food, department stores, pretty much everywhere I can think of that isn't strictly formal attire). You cannot escape tight ass being paraded in front of you. What used to be a titillating exception to the norm, has become the norm.

Do you have to show off your ass all the fucking time? At work, on tv, when I go get some food, when I'm in line at the mall, the bank...LITERALLY EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME. You can't go anywhere without seeing women wearing clothing that literally shows off every single curve of her lower body.

I forget the exact wording of the Patrice O'neil joke about teasing bears with honey, but I always liked that bit. At what point is this shit too much? They are directly challenging our biological desires at every point in the day, anywhere you go.

And the reasoning is empowerment. "It makes me feel good about myself! Why can't I be proud of my body? Why can't you look at something else?" You can be, but come on, look at something else? Who are you trying to kid? You are wearing that because you know men like it. PERIOD. You are not wearing painted on tights because you like how your ass looks. You can't see your ass. And even if that is the reason, have some fucking consideration for the way you are presenting yourself. Do you want every single guy who is behind you all day to look at your ass? Because that is what's going to happen, you can't train that out of men ladies. But they don't really want us to look away, do they?

And what REALLY gets me is the ages at which it is acceptable to wear this stuff. Every weekend at the mall, I swear to god, I see a mother in what I would consider fairly average attire - jeans, maybe a t-shirt or sweater, not overly conservative by any means, but she doesn't have anything to prove. She's wearing comfortable clothing and isn't eliciting stares from men. Walking next to her is her 12 year old daughter, wearing a tight tank top, and yoga pants that must be painted on. I wish this was an isolated incident, but I see this every single time I go to a mall. And I've actually paid attention to what other guys are looking at at the malls, and 9 times out of 10, they take a look at the daughter, because, well, she's showing off everything she has.

I just don't know what is happening to our society anymore.

Bobarhino · 2014-04-03T02:17:10+00:00

"Oh, my God. Becky, look at her butt. It's just, like, out there."

Only boys are distracted by such things...

ugly_duck · 2014-04-03T09:03:14+00:00

Feminists hate teenage boys, male sexuality and ever having to limit their behavior even one tiny bit in order to be accommodating to other people.

Revoran · 2014-04-03T05:24:28+00:00

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izmeister · 2014-04-03T07:39:06+00:00

I don't think yoga pants are a civil right or that banning them is promoting rape culture, but I don't agree with the blanket ban.

Obviously this isn't okay, but those look ill fitting. Most yoga pants like these, or these are fine.

I don't know, I think either ban all sweat pants for boys and girls let girls wear them (unless they are see through/way too tight). Maybe I'm just sensitive because workout pants are so comfy. And because I unfairly got in trouble a lot for wardrobe because I developed early and looked older than I was.

some_a_hole · 2014-04-03T04:52:54+00:00

Am I going to be seen as a brutish old guy in 40 years because I acknowledge to noticing someone's wearing yoga pants?

5eraph · 2014-04-03T02:16:06+00:00

I like to see that more and more of these articles are being written by women. Obviously, the gender of the author shouldn't, but having a diversity of support for these issues cannot be a bad thing.

BpsychedVR · 2014-04-03T03:20:26+00:00

Here's how I see it. A heterosexual boy in his early teens is biologically predisposed to notice his female peers' bodies. If a girl is wearing clothing that pronounces features which he deems sexual, then he will inevitably notice them, and they, for whatever period of time, will grab his attention. It's just fact.

Now, should he intentionally stare at her, after he's already noticed? No, he (hopefully) knows better than to do that to a girl his age. Does this behavior, if unwarranted by the girl, promote sexual interest or desire in the boy? Sure. Does the same interest or desire promote rape culture? No. Does this mean that boys should just learn to ignore the female features being highlighted? Unless it's to the point of truly making the girls feel unconfortable (long enough for the girls to notice the boys noticing those features), no.

Honestly, I think raising a girl as a father would be the hardest thing for me to do. Having to raise a girl to always respect boys her age--the same boys who might one day blantanly sexually objectify her in many ways as a teenager or young adult, or be in a relationship with a boy who I will never know, that will ask my daughter to do sexual acts that I wouldn't be OK with, that I will never know about--would always STILL be the right thing to do.

Men aren't evil, and women aren't sluts, but these events happen every day. If anything, both males and females are raised in an over-sexualized culture not a rape culture. That's not the fault of any gender.

I wouldn't know what to do if my daughter wanted to wear what the majority of the girls were wearing at school to fit in, if it were tight yoga pants. As a father of a teenage girl I would find this situation difficult to handle.

On the one hand, at that age any and all sexual attention given to my daughter wouldn't be OK with me personally, however I would really want my kid to fit in with their peers. Of course if her school banned the pants altogether like this one has, there would be no question about it.

Edit: made paragraphs

2014-04-03T09:43:13+00:00

The yoga-pants-everywhere trend is so fucking rude. Grinds my gears.

Sure you can wear them, but you must know how it affects the people around you. So you just don't care that it does? Rude.

2014-04-03T04:40:45+00:00

I think they probably wouldn't allow a boy to wear yoga pants either, for the same reason: they'd distract students from learning, the point of being in school.

Sketchy_Uncle · 2014-04-03T13:25:54+00:00

Just get dressed for crying out loud when you go to school. Enough with the sloppy pajamas and other stuff for both boys and girls. It's time to be a little bit more serious about life and meet the day and dress for the occasion. I'm really sick of this: "you shouldn't care about what I wear.... Its my right to do whatever I want...." . Make a dress code that is honest and practical and everyone sticks to it.

2014-04-03T14:51:23+00:00

In my middle school boys were banned from wearing tank tops, and almost certainly would be banned from wearing shorts that girls wore.

2014-04-03T15:53:32+00:00

I know I am late to the conversation, but here goes. When I was in undergrad, I volunteered to tutor math and English at a high school. On my first day, I was shocked to see these little women, not girls, but women who were in 10th to 12th grade with bodies of those in their early 20s. These girls were very developed for their age and wore revealing clothing (super tight jeans, thongs, yoga pants, pushup bras, etc.) And they flaunted it. I was shocked and felt like a pervert for checking them out when I didn't have the strength to look away from girls doing their best to get my attention.

Looking back at my own ability to not check them out or stare or whatever time length of gaze we are talking about, this has only changed slightly with age and tact. I am in my 30's now and I still have a hard time not looking because its part of who I am, its a part of being a human male. I have evolved to assess the ability and want of the women around to have sex and bear children.

I've seen this argument come up many times on reddit and people seem to forget that this is a two way street because it involves both the sexes. We shouldn't shame boys into believing their natural instincts to look are "creepy" or inappropriate. Yet, we should teach them restraint and how to engage appropriately, the "art of the checkout." At the same time, we shouldn't shame girls into dressing like the Amish or Hasidic Jewish grandmothers, allowing them to express themselves and their budding sexuality. Yet at the same time, we should teach them that a little restraint goes a long long way.

Honestly, I think the most important aspect is teaching them about context and why dressing a certain way in certain contexts has ramifications. If you teach those youngins to respect themselves, they are more likely to get respect in the process.

And with that said, I still see juvenile adults shaming each other for behavior they incited! Ladies, you are statistically likely to get gawkers and weirdos the stronger the stimulus is. Do the math. And gents, close your mouths. Its nothing you haven't seen before.

duglock · 2014-04-03T21:26:49+00:00

Our society today greatly confuses privileges with rights. I searched the Constitution and found no mention of yoga pants. Pretty sure the next step is for feminists to attempt to force society to pay for yoga pants for girls who can't afford them.

Bartab · 2014-04-03T02:24:55+00:00

Again, this is a school system that bans wearing clothing with the American flag on Cinco de Mayo because of the disruption it might cause. (Yet allows mexican flags every day, even july 4th - not that may 5th is anybodies independence)

BellaBlack · 2014-04-03T13:11:28+00:00

Feminism doesn't just fight for civil rights though, and this is not what "feminism has come to". Not every issue is equally big and important, but it is always important to point out sexism when we see it. It doesn't mean that those issues are now the most important thing to feminism though.

Also, as someone from Scandinavia, this seems very much like conservative moralism. Girls had yoga-pants when I grew up and no one cared.

BrilliantDynamitesNe · 2014-04-03T13:49:58+00:00

Yep, this was in /r/pics earlier too. http://i.imgur.com/8bTXSqq.jpg

rexxthunder2020 · 2014-04-03T16:37:58+00:00

I think they should be allowed. How else are pedophiles supposed to get their rocks off? Nobody looks out for the Pedos.

WomenAreAlwaysRigh · 2014-04-03T01:02:50+00:00

It could be argued that wearing provocative clothing in public is a form of sexual violence against men.

nramember · 2014-04-04T01:11:54+00:00

I should be able to rape women in yoga pants they want it.

Title	Yoga pants are not a civil right
Author	ThePoliticalHat
Upvotes	207
Comments	232
Date	April 2, 2014 11:50 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/22248i/yoga_pants_are_not_a_civil_right/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/yoga-pants-are-not-a-civil-right.1002074 https://theredarchive.com/post/1002074

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