To Smash a Stereotype

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Quentin Crisp once said: “The young always have the same problem – how to rebel and conform at the same time.  They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.”

If he wanted to give a true stereotype to teens, he was absolutely correct.

But…here’s a change: a fresh initiative to try and smash teen stereotypes…it’s called Hoodie Day.

Hoodie Day first came to life when NZAAHD hosted and spread the word about their mission of helping minimise teen stereotypes by trying to get the country to dress up in hoodies.

NZAAHD which deciphers as ‘New Zealand Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development’, held Hoodie day on 30th May 2008 which happily coincided with another great NZAAHD initiative – Youth Week.

The second year of its existence, Hoodie Day has kept a strong presence in the community, but was actually held on 12th August this year, to coincide with International Youth Day (I’ve done my research – the UN have in fact made this day official).

The pure message behind Hoodie Day is to say: it’s not ‘cool’ to stereotype those wearing hoodies as gangsters, thieves, or druggies. And what better way to get the message out than to get everyone to feel a bit of this stereotype and run a nation-wide campaign to get everyone to fit into their hoodies, no matter what age you are, or the colour, size, and shape of your hoodie.

I’m 100% for smashing stereotypes and all, but what really is it about a hoodie that brings in a negative reaction?

For example, 2005 brought a hoodie ban into Coastlands Paraparaumu Mall.

Or, 3 years later in 2008, after an increase of bank robberies over the past couple of years, BNZ followed with a ban of, among other things, hoodies in their branches. After this very bold move, many banks were interviewed and a newspaper article that followed clearly stated they haven’t expressed any interest to follow suit.

But, before you go out and get actively into protest against these places that are banning a piece of clothing (like I did when I first heard of it, not actually owning a single hoodie myself), you better put your lawyer skills to use and read the fine print. The fine print states that although hoodies are acceptable, what is not acceptable is wearing your hood inside as it is a simple safety issue to make sure all people inside the bank, mall, cameras or whatever can see your face.

Now, as a teenager I would challenge that last sentence and say:

“That’s invasion of my privacy – why should cameras need to watch me – do I look like a criminal?!”.

As you could predict, my response to my own question would be:

“The cameras don’t judge because they are watching everyone. More so, if you’re not a criminal, why would you want to hide your face?”

My point:
How I see it, Hoodie Day is a great way to get the community involved. Alas, it should not be used as a day to pay respects and treat the poor hoodie as a victim of bad press.

As far as I can tell, the only issue hoodie wearers are facing is when they actually wear their hood.

I don’t think any of my jackets with hoods can pass off as a ‘hoodie’, but I will be the first person to admit that unless it’s raining and I have no rain coat, or I’m trying to do a ridiculous rap artist impression in front of my mirror in the privacy of my own home, you will not see me put on that hood. I personally think it looks ridiculous on me, as do hats, in my opinion.

The rule of removing hats inside comes from the ancient days of the knights, who when out exploring on their adventures, riding their horses, would always wear their big, heavy helmet. When entering a house (remember they were still in their armour), they took the courtesy of removing their helmet so that:

a) they could rest their head – the helmet of pure metal, I’m guessing was heavy
b) so their head could actually fit through the doorway (I really did read this somewhere)
c) so the other person could hear them clearly, but most importantly:
d) it was a sign of respect that they are letting their helmet come off, because for all they knew, the host of the house could have stabbed their head, or decapitated it to be precise. It was a sign of trust and respect, and apparently is the one pure and main reason this simple gesture still acts as the sign of trust and respect today.

You ask why children are becoming disrespectful, well you’re teaching them that, aren’t you? Like every time they sit at the dinner table with their gangster hats and their jeans almost at their ankles, and you don’t want to get fussy, so you skip the common sense and basic principles of explaining that by removing your hat, you are actually showing respect to those at the table. Of course these kids won’t know the first thing about what respect is – especially when they haven’t been taught that this respect starts even from the little gestures, such as removing hats.

So coming back to crime and hoods…why aren’t we treating hoods like we treat hats?

Unless of course you’re wearing it for a religious reason, hats must always be removed inside, and the same basic principle, culture and common sense should apply for hoods, so now the next course of action, is next time to gently remind that partner, peer, friend, teenager, child, or anyone else who have their hood on inside a public (and even a private home) place, to kindly remove it…

…that is unless they enjoy the thrill of being chased by mall cops when they’re walking abnormally fast.

I’ve been watching too many American movies about malls and crime I think…

Toodles,

Eva-Maria
xox

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