Although the hooded sweater has been around for a number of years, it has recently become a symbol of aggression, violence and unlawfulness. For many years the hoodie was just a very practical item of clothing but for a number of reasons it has now become almost unacceptable for young people to wear one. Even if it is worn with the hood down, the item of clothing still creates a level of suspicion today.
Over the last five years European cities have had their fair share of riots and media reporting on these riots have given a lot of exposure to the people who were rioting. Incidentally a lot of these people happened to be wearing hoodies and even when being interviewed, they continued to keep their hoods up to protect their identity from authorities who might enforce the law upon them.
As well as rioting, the media reported a lot of violent crimes where the offender was wearing a hoodie at the time. Many newspapers put great emphasis on the fact that the offender was wearing a hoodie and as more and more of these crimes were reported, the more it created a moral panic among the public.
As hoodies received more and more media attention, people in power started taking actions to try and make the public feel safe once again. Shopping centres began banning people from wearing their hoods and some even band the clothing item altogether. Some MPs even backed the ban and said it was a necessary precaution. While this made people feel safer in shopping centres it only fuelled the ideas created about people wearing hoodies and made the clothing item even more threatening.
After the extreme discrimination and the connotations which had been created for any young person wearing a hoodie, young people started to respond by holding peaceful protests in hooded sweatshirts and boycotting those shopping centres which had band the hoodie. These actions alone were enough to provoke a response from party leaders who agreed that the issue had been taken too far by the media and the hoodie had no bearing on the person wearing it.
Have a look at these awesome funny hoodies.
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