U.S.

Saggy, Baggy And Indecent?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 13, 1998 / 9:37 PM EDT / CBS

It is called "sagging," and it's a look that turns underwear into outerwear and fashion on its rear, reports CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

"It is disgusting -- kids with their heinie out," says Gloria Janice. However, booty, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.

Sagging pants may not defy the laws of gravity, but do they defy the law of the land?

"If they expose parts of the human anatomy that should not be exposed in a public setting, then they're in violation of the law," says Ronnie Trahan of the Opelousas Louisiana Police Department, where those who fashion the sagging look can be fined $50 under indecent exposure laws.

In New Iberia, to the south, the city council may take things one step further by enacting a law to specifically address what it considers to be a state of undress.

"I've been mooned," says city councilman Louis Brown, who may have seen a little too much from his front porch. "You can wear your baggy pants, just wear the baggy pants the way they are supposed to be worn, north of the border. If you wear them south of the border them you're not thinking correctly or acting correctly."

Mooning would be eclipsed under the proposed law which forbids underwear showing anywhere - a plan the ACLU says goes too far.

"We don't need the government deciding for us what's offensive and what's not," says Joe Cook of the Louisiana ACLU. "Our recommendation is to get a grip and chill out. This is a passing fad."

It's a fad that many here would like to see left behind.