But a Rhode Island man will probably keep that self-evident fact to himself next time…
“To all yoga pant wearers, I struggle with my own physicality as I age,” wrote Alan Sorrentino, 63, in the letter published by the Barrington Times last week. “I don’t want to struggle with yours.”
The letter, which said adult women wearing yoga pants in public was comparable to men wearing Speedos to the grocery store, went viral. The backlash was immediate, passionate, and international.
And included a parade past his house, a lot of very personal publicity, and vandalism and threats. Have you ever noticed that the people who take themselves most seriously are always the ones who’d be better off maintaining a deprecating sense of humor?
Personally I would look dreadful in yoga pants. As do most people. But my right to show my ass in public outweighs your right to request that I not do so – in some place other than Sanity Land.
I’ve read about “yoga pants” before, but was never interested enough to find out just what they were talking about. So, just for you, (grin), I went to Amazon and looked at some of them… 400 pages of these things? No, I didn’t get past page three.
They look like many other casual pants, from shorts to long, and some look like ordinary sweat pants. They cover the important stuff, which is all I wondered about. Some are tight, but so are a lot of blue jeans and other pants. What’s the big deal about these things? What does “yoga” have to do with it? I don’t get it.
ML, many women wear the tighter (as in: nothing left to the imagination) varieties while they contort themselves into various positions for dubious benefits. Many others wear them because they attract the male gaze, either because they like the attention or they want an excuse to condemn “toxic masculinity”.
And many women wear them who shouldn’t. “Dress for the body you have, not the body you want” is apparently triggering:-/.
I can sympathize with this chump I’m not into yoga or wearing yoga attire and I’m not such a fan of spandex either. But to come out in public and say that is stupid. This is like trying to block a punch in the face with your jaw. Yes he has freedom of speech but he forgot others do to and a lot of them are rabidly insecure. These folks have a talent for taking little problems and inflating them into big ones to compensate for a lack of big problems.
I don’t disagree with the guy. There is a time and place to wear everything, There are body shapes that should not be seen in them outside of a gym setting, and for some, maybe not even then. Very few can get away with Speedos or bikinis; the vast majority of us need to wear something less revealing.
It’s too bad someone hasn’t taken each-n-everyone of them aside and explained to them exactly (maybe with pictures) how unflattering what they are wearing, looks. I thought my mother was over-exaggerating how my legs looked in a mini-skirt until I looked at myself in a full length mirror. She wasn’t wrong. Somethings need to be left to the imagination!
The image(s) that come to mind are pictures that appear on the internet periodically titled “the people of Wal-Mart”.
Eh, they’ve got the right to wear what they want within the accepted bounds of decency, and the guy has the right to bitch about it all he wants. The part where we’re going off the rails is where we’ve become so effing sensitive that we demonstrate in front of his house and act like he’s Hitler for having an opinion we disagree with.
Get over yourselves, people. I can’t even imagine having such a fragile worldview that the “get offa my lawn!” rantings of a 60 something boomer would unhinged me enough that I’d spend my free time threatening him and demonstrating in front of his house.
I’ve had old guys get after me for wearing knee length shorts in public. Apparently 50 years ago such a thing was unmanly and not something a decent male would do.
50 years later and times changed. I told the old fart as much and politely went about my business. I didn’t demand he change his opinion or demonstrate in front of his house, because who cares what he thinks?
I work on a university campus and I would tend to agree with Alan. For several years I’ve fought the urge to inform many students that leggings do not count as pants. I have balanced that urge, however, with my desire to remain gainfully employed until such time as I can retire with a state funded (for now, anyway) pension.
I agree with Mike about the leggings especially when worn with a longish T shirt for a top. It is wasted breath to even talk to your own grand daughters about it so that’s how the world goes and I suppose its no worse than the mini skirts on the girls in my youth.
Hey, dem’s fightin’ woids, Howard. 🙂 As I recall miniskirts, they were nearly exclusively worn by girls who looked good in them. I was much in favor of miniskirts. On the same terms, I have nothing against stretch legging. But as someone already said, “dress for the body you have, not the body you want.”
Erm…as if I, who dress almost exclusively in patched and paint-spattered surplus cammies, have any space at all to talk about how other people dress…
“dress for the body you have, not the body you want.”
– or, said more than 20 years ago in Hackers:
“Spandex is a privilege, not a right”