race yourself for a
controversial
statement: I dislike sweatpants.
I initially wrote ‘hate,’ but as parents of young children recognize, that is a bad word, so I toned it down. Let’s just say that I very strongly object to sweatpants. Almost always.
Don't get me wrong, I am okay with the idea of sweatpants: Loose, soft pants that you throw on over workout gear, on the way to exercise or in transit on the way to a post-workout shower. In my mind, they are purely transitional. Not actual clothing. Not workplace attire.
My disgust at this fashion choice has roots in childhood. We moved to Florida when I was 10, and one of the first things I noticed was the extremely casual dress code. I’ve written about my attempts to fit in with my peers by making some questionable clothing choices as a fourth-grader. Public notices in the grocery store featuring reminders of the necessity of both ‘shoes and shirts’ were confusing and disconcerting. In my earliest memories, flip-flops and tank-tops were in high rotation.
B