{"id":4137,"date":"2014-10-18T21:52:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T03:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=4137"},"modified":"2014-10-20T20:39:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T02:39:38","slug":"prairie-lights-weighing-in-on-the-great-yoga-pants-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/10\/prairie-lights-weighing-in-on-the-great-yoga-pants-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Weighing in on the great yoga pants debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yoga\"<\/a>

We are loath to define what constitutes inappropriate yoga pants, but we will go so far as to say that these yoga pants are perfectly appropriate. He would need to wear a shirt and shoes if he were going to school, however.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just about a month ago, a frequent correspondent wrote to express his surprise that so many people had commented on a Billings Gazette article about yoga pants.<\/p>\n

He was writing the day the Gazette ran the first story about a student at Skyview High who was organizing protests against the school\u2019s new dress code.<\/p>\n

My correspondent said no fewer than 41 comments had already been left under the story. Meanwhile, he said, \u201cyou might get a handful of people to attend a school board meeting to witness the latest resignation of a board member,\u201d and only a few people had commented about the city\u2019s proposed public safety mill level, which by itself would surpass the entire mill levy for Yellowstone County.<\/p>\n

That was a month ago.<\/p>\n

\"Ed-Mug<\/a>

Ed Kemmick<\/p><\/div>\n

As of Friday, the story in question had 199 comments under it. The real flood of comments, though, started on Sept. 25, when the Gazette published a guest editorial with the sarcastic headline, \u201cWhy yoga pants are incredibly dangerous to today\u2019s youth.\u201d<\/p>\n

That piece, written by Skyview graduate Ashley Crtalic, had 805 comments attached to it as of Friday, and nearly a month after it was published the piece was still the most-read story on the Gazette website.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n

All kinds of things. The debate involved high school, for one, an experience that some people look back on with pleasure but most with a mixture of dread, loathing and relief. Good or bad, it is an experience that remains vivid in one\u2019s memory forever. We all talk about high school because in a way we\u2019re all still there.<\/p>\n

And it involved sex. The young woman in the first story, in fact, mostly objected to the apparent line of reasoning that girls had to conform to dress codes to keep sex-crazed boys from being distracted to the point of learning nothing.<\/p>\n

Above all, I think, it was the kind of debate most people could enter and express honest opinions about without having the debate turn toxic within five minutes. If you\u2019ve followed comment threads on same-sex marriage, abortion and the nondiscrimination ordinance, you know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t read all 805 comments under Ms. Crtalic\u2019s guest editorial\u2014which also appeared on her blog, from which it has been shared on Facebook more 300,000 times!\u2014but I read enough of them to be amazed at the generally civilized tone, at the lack of name-calling and meanness.<\/p>\n

What do I think? I think I never imagined that I\u2019d ever weigh in on anything having to do with yoga pants, much less an article of clothing called jeggings. So let me work around the edges of a subject that seems to have been covered more than thoroughly by thousands of other people.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>First, you need to know that I went to Catholic schools through eighth grade, which meant I wore uniforms for all those years. I wouldn\u2019t wish my school experiences on anybody, but I liked the uniforms. Not from a style standpoint, since I didn\u2019t have any style, but from the standpoint of never having to spend a moment pondering what to wear.<\/p>\n

There were still differences. The rich kids and the beautiful girls and the stylish people always looked better than the rest of us, but unless your uniform was seriously decrepit, everything was cool. We all looked enough alike that clothing, at least, could be removed from the very long list of topics regarding which one could be tormented, teased and ostracized.<\/p>\n

So if I had my choice, I\u2019d say all schools should just go for the uniform. I wouldn\u2019t go so far as to recommend that all male students wear a bolo tie with a portrait of the Virgin Mary on the clasp, but I was fond even of that.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something else: If schools are going to have the power to enforce dress codes that deal with tightness, shortness and the display of flesh, why can\u2019t they force children to dress appropriately in regard to the weather?<\/p>\n

I never had to deal with my daughters dressing provocatively, but it was a losing battle trying to make them dress with some consideration for the elements. By the time my third daughter was attending Senior High I had given up completely.<\/p>\n

If she wanted to go out in a blizzard wearing shorts, a little spring jacket and what appeared to be ballet shoes, so be it. I would be there for her when she came down with pneumonia or frostbite, but I wasn\u2019t going to waste another moment trying to talk reason with her.<\/p>\n

She was hardly alone. I\u2019d be driving past Senior with the heater on full blast, shivering under a heavy coat, two shirts and a sweater, and I\u2019d see a trio of kids walking to school, two in T-shirts and no jackets and the other in flip-flops.<\/p>\n

If school officials had insisted on coats, gloves, hats and honest-to-God shoes or boots, I would have backed them all the way. I would have testified at the School Board.<\/p>\n

But yoga pants? I feel I\u2019ve lived long enough and have paid enough dues that I should never have to give my opinion on yoga pants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just about a month ago, a frequent correspondent wrote to express his surprise that so many people had commented on a Billings Gazette article about yoga pants. He was writing the day the Gazette ran the first story about a student at Skyview High who was organizing protests against the school\u2019s new dress code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1522,1521,1520],"class_list":["post-4137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prairie-lights","tag-ashley-crtalic","tag-skyview-high-school","tag-yoga-pants","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}