上世紀90年代開始流行的低腰褲最近受到了一位美國參議員的挑戰，他出資2000美元在紐約布魯克林區的街道上掛出了巨幅廣告畫，告誡年輕人把褲子提好，這樣才能提升自己的形象。這位參議員表示，很多年輕人褲子穿得越來越低，有些甚至低得連內褲都露在外面，他認為這樣的衣著有損個人形象，希望通過自己的行為起到警示和告誡的作用。除了戶外廣告牌，這位參議員還制作了一個視頻短片上傳到網上，宣稱“提起褲子能夠提升你的尊嚴。”其實，這位參議員并不是反對低腰褲的第一人，美國現任總統奧巴馬在競選總統的時候就公開表示不希望看到低腰褲內露出的內褲。美國有些社區甚至通過法案對穿超低腰褲子的人進行罰款。達拉斯的官員也曾經在2007年推出過類似的廣告牌告誡行動。

A "Stop the Sag!" billboard is seen on the side of a building in Brooklyn.

Sayinglow-slung pants give their wearers a bad image, a state lawmaker is making the point with some images of his own.

Brooklyn residents awoke Thursday to the sight of two “Stop the Sag” billboards — 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 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 theslack-slacks style that has been popular in some circles since the 1990s and amplified by rappers and other avatars of urban fashion.

The dropped-trousers trend has been debated in TV shows, city councils, school boards, state legislatures and courtrooms and even decried in song: Larry Platt became an Internet sensation earlier this year after he sang his original song “Pants on the Ground” during an “American Idol” audition.

Bill Cosby caused a stir by blasting baggy 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 embarked on a “Pull Your Pants Up” billboard campaign in 2007. Some schools have tightened dress codes to get students to tighten their belts. Last summer, a St. Petersburg, Fla., high school principal resorted to ordering thousands of plastic zip ties to help students hitch up their pants.

Some communities have tried outlawing saggy slacks, though such regulations have often faced questions about their legality.

Yet the trend has hung around. Adams decided he had enough after spotting a subway rider 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 retired 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 images of minstrelsy and other racial caricatures with shots of sagging pants — all fuel for troubling stereotypes, in Adams’ view.

Communities from Lynwood, Ill., to Lafourche Parish, La., have passed laws imposing 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.” 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 legislate, 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 partisans aren’t sure it merits 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 jauntily low on his hips.

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(Agencies)

Vocabulary:

low-slung pants: 低腰褲

slack-slacks style: 松松垮垮的風格

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）