Hoodies For Boys – Aren’t They ADVISABLE?

I met a parent recently that would 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 also worse, rebellion. “Only spider hoodie wear them” she said. I didn’t agree needless to say, because I had worn them for a long time and don’t consider myself to be a “criminal type.”

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

This got me considering hoodies in general. After all, why are they frequently associated with criminal behavior nowadays. It didn’t used to be that way. Didn’t folks from all backgrounds just put them on to be casual and stay warm as well. 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 across the front you could lock your cold hands in. They even annoyed me sometimes when I’d lose the neck string inside the sweat shirt and it would take me hours to obtain 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 common European peasant wore a hoodie like coat or blanket, right? What about Robin Hood? There was Little Red Riding Hood. The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White herself. Of course so did the wicked queen when she was a witch. Actually a lot of witches ware hoodies! What about Shrek… and Rocky? There is really a couple or hero types that wore a hoodies (and a beanie in Rocky’s case). What I am saying is just about every stereotype are available wearing a hoodie at some time and time. Even the Mexican Serape could have a hood onto it if Sombreros weren’t so cool!

The point is that hoodies are for everybody even for boys, plus 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 particular lifestyle or group of people and maybe that is were one needs to use 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 in the end I will continue to wear my hoodie and hopefully it generally does not upset anyone.