By Nicole Ferrito
One of the most comfortable items of clothing that can be found in almost any girl’s closet is her yoga pants. Sure, sweat pants and that old pair of jeans are great, but there is nothing like a stretchy pair of pants that forms to your body and moves effortlessly with you. Whether you are working out at the gym, practicing aerobics at the studio, going to class, or just lazing around on a Sunday afternoon, for many girls, yoga pants are their go to piece of apparel.
But how would you feel, if these pants were not allowed to be worn at your school because they are seen to “expose too much ‘leg and backside’”? According to a blog written on citypages.com, in mid November, the principal of Minnetonka High School, Dave Adney wrote a letter to the parents requesting they encourage their daughters to not wear pants, such as leggings that may expose too much for an academic setting.
On March, 13, 2013, Cosmopolitan Magazine wrote an article following up on the yoga pants banning, in Anne Breslaw’s piece called, “Midwest High School Tells Girls to Stop Wearing Yoga Pants“. Breslaw makes a point in her article, to note that while the school is concerned with the issue on the “sexuality” of yoga pants, they should be more focused on remedying issues, such as “drugs, unwanted pregnancies, irresponsible drinking, among other common problems faced at the high school level.
Breslaw also notes that while from the woman’s perspective, these leggings/yoga pants are used in “unsexy times” such as “dropping off dry cleaning,” she goes on to say that in “Dude World” these pants hold some sort of “Sexual Power”.
Curious about the stance of other women as well as men, on the “yoga pants banning” issue and its distractive nature, we asked the opinions of a few college men and women.
To support what Breslaw point on the pants’ “unsexy” purpose, Justina Del Rio, junior psychology major at The College of New Jersey, said, “You don’t really feel like trying in the morning, so you just throw on some yoga pants because you just feel like they are comfortable.”
We then asked a college male how he felt on the topic. Jon Michaels, sophomore psychology major at the College, said while laughing, “The pants tends to draw your attention to the lower half of her body…but I do not find it distracting.”
Hannah Wey, a senior pre-med major at the College, expressed her opinion on the banning, as well, “Yoga pants fully cover a young woman’s body, and even if they didn’t, I think the “distracting” factor is more of a social context than an academic concern and that the school policy should stay out of it.” She feels that not only all schools, but specifically public schools should not ban clothing.
On the other hand, there are guys that do find them distracting. Rene Moore, a sophomore communication studies major, said, “I am pro-yoga pants. If a girl wants to dress comfortably, then I think she has the right to. But I do think that they may be distracting for some guys.”
Giving a different point of view, Cait Flynn, political science major, said, “Yoga pants are one of the few things that guys like us wearing that are really comfortable. It’s a way to look ‘attractive’ or whatever while not squeezing into something or wearing painful shoes for the way they look.”
A girl may choose to slip on a pair of yoga pants to be comfortable, to exercise, or to look good. However, whether it is a piece of female attire that is so distracting to guys that they are unable to concentrate in a school setting is not really known. While some guys do seem to find themselves “checking a girl out” in yoga pants, it may not be to the extent of affecting schoolwork. Who knows what could be next, banning sundresses?
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