Attorney General Kim Wilson yesterday launched a verbal attack on low-hanging pants, telling the Senate: "I'm not particularly interested in seeing the crack of somebody's backside."

Sen. Wilson said the current fashion trend — which she says mimics the dress style of prisoners banned from wearing belts — means many young men are creating bad first impressions with everyone they meet.

Her comments sparked a lively debate on how low pants should go, with senators Michael Dunkley and Thaao Dill echoing Sen. Wilson's concerns, Marc Bean comparing today to the days of platform shoes and bell-bottomed pants and Walton Brown saying people should not be denigrated because of the way they dress.

During yesterday's Motion to Adjourn, Sen. Wilson told how she'd recently bumped into a rehabilitated offender whom she once represented as a defence lawyer.

He was wearing his hat backwards, his eyebrows were partly shaved and he had a 14 carat gold chain around his neck.

"His pants were so saggy he had to hold on with one hand, exposing not only his boxer shorts but the crack of his butt," Sen. Wilson told the Upper House.

She said she commented on the man's outfit, and he replied that he had just come from work.

"How would you even expect someone to let you into his house dressed like that?" continued Sen. Wilson.

She said that while some people may dress in such a manner for style, others are doing it to mirror criminals.

"What concerns me is that historically this fashion started in prison," she said, explaining that some convicts were given oversized clothes and not allowed to wear belts for safety reasons.

"Why are these boys and men wanting to impersonate a prisoner, or impersonate a thug, or impersonate a gangster?

"As a wife and mother I'm not particularly interested in seeing somebody's butt, or in seeing the crack of their backside, or their underwear. My daughter said, 'Why is their underwear showing?'

"I saw a man one time, there were holes. Yes, they were Calvin Klein, but this is just ridiculous. It's offensive, it's terribly offensive, unless it's your desire to create an impression that, 'I'm a thug, I'm a gangster, I want to impersonate prisoners.'"

Sen. Wilson said senior members of society need to instill self-respect into younger people.

She added that while anti-sagging legislation has been introduced in parts of the States she does not support that in Bermuda, but she said laws surrounding public indecency could cover the issue.

Sen. Dunkley told how earlier this week he saw a young man climbing over a wall holding his pants up with one hand and a two-year-old child with the other hand.

"Here's a young man trying to be a role model for a little one still in pyjamas in the middle of the afternoon," said the United Bermuda Party Senate Leader.

"Try talking to some of those individuals who dress like that. They honestly think it's the correct approach," he said.

He said Bermuda's standards have dropped because the education system and family structure have broken down.

Sen. Brown recalled how people thought the world was coming to an end when the Afro hairstyle was popular.

"There are issues that we need to fix. It's not simply by getting people to alter the way they dress," said Progressive Labour Party Senator Brown.

"I think we should put much more energy into people's behaviour and actions instead of the way they dress. You just can't denigrate a whole group of people simply because of the way they dress.

"We should just move on from dress as if it's some form of panacea, as if we can just get them to pull their pants up or tighten their belt."

Sen. Bean said: "Every single generation through the history of mankind has been manifested by the youth, who will always be youthful; they will always press the envelope."

The PLP Senator said the younger generation lets popular culture dictate how it dresses, and explained his sister's photographs from the 1970s show people in platform shoes and tight bell-bottomed pants, with lipstick, Afros and braids.

He said young women validate the way young men dress, but said if his 16-year-old daughter brought home a boy with his pants down he would tell him why it's inappropriate.

"Eventually you mature," he said. "Eventually, you must get a woman in your life who says, 'That's not the standard if you want to be with me.'"

PLP Senator Dill said: "The uniform of people engaged in criminal activities is what's considered cool. That within itself is extraordinarily concerning."

Sen. Dill said such an attitude over dress can trickle down into people's general perspective.

"The real thing that we require nationally is a revolution of values," he said.

n Further Senate reports – Page 6