Omnivore - Saggy pants banned at some McDonald’s

Remember those signs that used to say, “No shirt, no shoes, no service”? Owners of two McDonald’s in Houston and more than 20 in Dallas have instituted a new ban against sagging pants.

A sign on a Houston restaurant says: “Pull your pants up or don’t come in!!! Try to have some decency and respect for others. No one wants to see your underwear.”

The policy exempts some diners: “Does not apply to children under 3 years of age.”

This is not a corporate decision. Franchise owners can independently establish and enforce fashion codes. So far, I’ve not discovered an Atlanta restaurant that has joined the movement.

Critics brand the policy as racial profiling. But many others note that some white boys also display their boxer-clad buttocks.

It’s also true that some forward-thinking cities, in the grip of something like the 50s Elvis panic, have already enacted ordinances banning the look, which has swept the globe like women’s exposure of breasts and music videos celebrating big butts. Further, objections to the fashion are totally cross-cultural:

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An official with the Black Mental Health Alliance of Massachusetts (BMHAM), a group that promotes parity in mental health services, thinks that wearing your jeans below your waist is a “behavioral health issue in our neighborhoods and communities that must be addressed.” And still others claim health reasons for banning saggy pants, citing potential future problems with hips and joints because of the “penguin” type walk saggers adopt in order to keep their pants up.

I’m on the outlook for similar trends. I plan to poll a few restaurants and coffee shops to learn why they haven’t similarly banned men in skinny jeans. The problem is that skinny jeans may reveal the outline of a man’s junk. In this case, sagging the pants may protect the sperm-killing effect of junk under extreme compression.

There is so much to worry about in our present-day culture.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s made the front page of the New York Times Monday via the video above from RetroReport.

Scalding coffee, unfathomably unhealthy food, and fashion policing - McDonald’s has it all.

(Top video courtesy of World News Videos. Lower video courtesy of RetroReport.org.)