美参议员挑战低腰裤

上世纪90年代开始流行的低腰裤最近受到了一位美国参议员的挑战，他出资2000美元在纽约布鲁克林区的街道上挂出了巨幅广告画，告诫年轻人把裤子提好，这样才能提升自己的形象。这位参议员表示，很多年轻人裤子穿得越来越低，有些甚至低得连内裤都露在外面，他认为这样的衣着有损个人形象，希望通过自己的行为起到警示和告诫的作用。

Sag¹!" billboard² is seen on the side of a building in Brooklyn." width="413" height="259" src="http://www.enread.com/upimg/100404/4_033349_1.jpg" />
A "Stop the Sag!" billboard is seen on the side of a building in Brooklyn.

Saying low-slung pants（低腰裤） give their wearers（佩戴者，穿用者） a bad image, a state lawmaker is making the point with some images of his own.

Brooklyn residents awoke（唤醒，引起） Thursday to the sight of two “Stop the Sag” billboards³（广告牌） — and more were on the way, organizers said. The signs show two men in jeans low enough to display their underwear. The billboards were bankrolled（提供资金） by state Sen. Eric Adams, who also made an online video to send his message: “You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants.”

Adams is the latest in a series of politicians and other public figures to lambaste（痛打，严责） the slack-slacks style（松松垮垮的风格） that has been popular in some circles since the 1990s and amplified⁴（放大，详述） by rappers and other avatars（替身，神使） of urban fashion.

The dropped-trousers trend has been debated in TV shows, city councils, school boards, state legislatures and courtrooms and even decried⁵（责难，谴责） in song: Larry Platt became an Internet sensation（感觉，轰动） earlier this year after he sang his original song “Pants on the Ground” during an “American Idol” audition⁶（试听，听力） .

Bill Cosby caused a stir（激起，惹起） by blasting baggy⁷（袋装的，膨胀的） pants, alongside other things he considered missteps by black youths, at an NAACP event in 2004. President Barack Obama, as a candidate, came out against low-sitting trousers in 2008.

Dallas officials embarked⁸ on a “Pull Your Pants Up” billboard campaign in 2007. Some schools have tightened¹⁰ dress codes to get students to tighten⁹ their belts. Last summer, a St. Petersburg, Fla., high school principal resorted to（诉诸，依靠） ordering thousands of plastic zip ties to help students hitch¹¹ up their pants.

Some communities have tried outlawing（宣布……不合法） saggy¹²（松懈的，下垂的） slacks, though such regulations have often faced questions about their legality.

Yet the trend has hung around. Adams decided¹³ he had enough after spotting a subway rider（附文，扶手） in particularly low-riding pair of pants a couple of months ago.

“Everyone on the train was looking at him and shaking their heads. And no one said anything to correct it,” Adams said in a telephone interview this week.

So Adams, a black retired¹⁴ police captain first elected in 2006, tapped his campaign coffers for $2,000 to put up the billboards. He elaborated in his YouTube video, which juxtaposes（并列） images of minstrelsy（吟游技艺） and other racial caricatures（漫画，讽刺画） with shots of sagging¹⁵ pants — all fuel for troubling stereotypes¹⁶, in Adams’ view.

Communities from Lynwood, Ill., to Lafourche Parish, La., have passed laws imposing¹⁷ fines for too-low trousers.

Lawmakers in some places have considered such measures but rejected or dropped them amid legal questions. A plan to fine people for pants that exposed their underwear stalled in the Tennessee General Assembly last year, after the state’s attorney general said it was “unconstitutionally vague（不明确的，含糊的） .” A Florida judge ruled a similar city law unconstitutional in 2008 after a 17-year-old in Riviera Beach spent a night in jail after being accused of having his underwear exposed.

Adams says he doesn’t aim to legislate¹⁸（立法） , just educate.

“I don’t want to criminalize young people being young people,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure we stand up and correct the behavior.”

Still, some of the style’s partisans¹⁹（游击队员） aren’t sure it merits（值得） a politician’s attention.

“I think there’s other things going on besides someone’s pants being low,” said James Scott, 27, of Brooklyn, his jeans sitting jauntily²⁰（活泼地，洋洋得意地） low on his hips²¹.