Back in the 90s, at least in France they were pretty rare. My dad bought a huge one in Canada in ‘91 and I would totally use it a few years later because it’s great when it rains and in Paris, it rains often. I still have this hoodie and still use it to skateboard.
Hoodies are much better than any umbrella, especially on crowded sidewalks. I think a tight hoodie is super sexy on women.
But anyway, I was walking in the suburbs of Paris, in Champs sur marne (East Paris, a bit shady, projects around etc). Winter, rainy, 6 or 6:30pm. Dark. I’m wearing this hoodie and I remember thinking how neat the sound is inside the hood and how when rain is fat like it was, water was going through the hood like it was a piece of paper. I was a little lost and I needed the time.
I approached this woman who is trying to enter her car. Nobody around but me and her. I already feel tension as I’m getting closer. She tries to speed up. I try to get there before she jumps in and can’t hear me. I use my best white voice possible, avoiding the scary “HEY!” and ask her “excuse me madame, what time is it, please?” and she freaks the shit out of her before I end my sentence.
She’s scared, she’s a middle aged white woman who doesn’t know what time it is, she gradually sees a creepy black dude under a hood. She’s not surprised and going on with her life, she’s fucking scared. Frozen until I leave.
That day, I sadly understood that wearing a hoodie and being a black dude was socially incorrect, unstable. Annoying because I loved me some hoodie. Especially with no hair. It feels so good. But as it’s also used by thugs to hide, I’m screwed. Can’t wear them. I realized later that whatever I wear, I’ll be suspicious. A suit will make me suspicious. A hoodie too. But a suit is better.
This year, I bought my first two hoodies ever. Everybody is wearing some so I figured fuck it, I’m doing it too. I’m a musician/developer, not a criminal.
And then Trayvon.
Now I look at them and I kind of want to cry. Anger. Desperation.
The only constant between me scaring this woman with a hoodie 15 years ago and Trayvon Martin is the stigmatized young black man who’s simply wearing something convenient. Yes, at the end appearances are deceptive.
Meanwhile the shooter is free, and defended to death . Oh god, the anger.
7 replies on “The Hoodie”
On a side note, many of us women in France do not dress as we want, for some very practical reasons : avoid being the victims of predators eyes, their heavy comments, threatening looks and gestures…
Then we are not seen as the ennemy but the victims. Both role are a pain in the ass to get rid of. Hence women dressing more “appropriately”, like me, and yet, still getting the comments. France is errr… how to say it… laging a lot, like centuries?
Sexism and racism are pretty different on clothes. First when people are sexist or racist, they don’t care about what your clothes are. In the Parisian metro, whatever you wear, dudes will scan the shit out of you. Mini skirts don’t call for rapists, rapists don’t care, they rape vaginas.
Now, for women clothes can be an advantage. Maybe later alone in the street it will be less of an advantage but nonetheless, a dressed-up woman can go and attract anybody’s attention in a good way. That’s super powerful.
In the case of racism, there’s none of that. A suit, you’re suspect. A hoodie, you’re suspect. You get attention in a bad way, 24/7.
There is a difference between being checked out and being approached. Also, not true, imo there is a rapist call, trust me. Example : young swedish drunk mini skirt girl in Paris. So the clever thing to do when you’re a woman, except not letting yourself get drunk to death (also true for men), is to not aggrave the situation by dressing like a whore. (define whore?)
In my experience, dressing with mini skirt looks like a normal experience in the UK or in the US, in France it is just impossible unless you want to be seen as a piece of meat. (you already are one but trust me it can be worse).
But I don’t compare it to racism against the black I just saw a comparison to young h. understanding the hoodie made him look in a certain way, having to be more conscious about society. I was young when I got that. I don’t want to give the ennemy in the street a reason to feel like he is right. Isn’t it what moved you as well?
Anyone who will judge this point of view paranoid may argue the same about what you said.
There is no rapist call, it’s not a matter of opinion, it’s facts. Read rape statistics. I know it’s hard to believe, especially in France but it is true. You are a piece of meat in France regardless and you know that well because you never wear anything specifically sexy and still, you get checked out and approached. It’s not the skirt, it’s the culture.
That’s why some women really make a point to wear sexy clothes to say “I do what I want to do”, not to “call rapists”. And again, there’s at least a good side on wearing sexy stuff. There is none in this hoodie mess.
Seriously, I knew you’d say that argument but very rare are the woman who dress like that for an opinion, you’re lucky if you know some, most of them are just completely clueless and do that to look sexy as a personnal achievement…
and it’s not a rapist call per se but something people will think and say when they see it, or worse, when it’s happened, so it does matter on the decision somehow.
what I meant in the first place with the example of women was to point the look of others, of society. It’s not why people do what they do that matters, why you wear the hoodie because of the sensations on your head, but the way others, society perceive it. At least I thought that’s what you meant. Your example, she may be a feminist inside, French will keep seeing her dressed as a low life woman. Very few will see her dressed as an emancipated person, very few will see the practical side of the hoodie.