Hoodie

If you are looking for a bird, see hooded crow.

A hoodie (sometimes also spelled hoody) is a shirt or sweatshirt with a hood. Some pullover hoodies also have a large pocket across the front called a kangaroo pocket, and many feature a logo. Some hoodies also have strings that can be pulled to tighten or loosen the hood. Other common hoodie styles are the zip-up, which either omit the pocket or split it into two, and the half-zip which can feature a "kangaroo pocket" as the zip starts above the pocket. Typical materials are cotton, polyester or a blend of the two.

Hoodies can be any color, but the most popular colors are black or dark blue ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}. Hoodies say different things in different places. In Australia and New Zealand, a hoodie often is a surfer/skateboarder and hence viewed as friendly in dolphin-loving sort of way [link]. Many teenagers or 20-somethings in the Northern Hemisphere wear hoodies as a fashion statement, and many wear them even when it's not cold outside, partly because they are extremely comfortable. Even in warm climates such as California it is not uncommon to see a large segment of a college campus's population clad in hooded sweatshirts.

Social fear

No hoodies sign outside a pub in South London

Particularly fashionable in the UK, hoodies have recently been the subject of much criticism: some wearers have committed criminal acts such as shoplifting using the hood to conceal their identity from CCTV cameras in shopping centres. The hat has become a trademark of "chavs", in fact it has been called the 'chav-style' by an Oxfam report [link]. These youths often combine the hoodie with a baseball cap for maximum incognito. Groups of young people (often in their mid teens) who loiter in their hoodies in public places are sometimes known as "hood rats" or just "hoodies" in the south of England. In the north of England hoodies are not seen as a separate group of youths but are grouped in with chavs. Many people wear hoodies simply because it can be cold in the UK.

Angela McRobbie, professor of communications at Goldsmiths College, says the appeal of the hoodie is because of its promise of anonymity and mystery and anxiety. "The point of origin is obviously black American hip-hop culture, now thoroughly mainstream and a key part of the global economy of music through Eminem and others. Leisure- and sportswear adopted for everyday wear suggests a distance from the world of office [suit] or school [uniform]. Rap culture celebrates defiance, as it narrates the experience of social exclusion. Musically and stylistically, it projects menace and danger as well as anger and rage. [The hooded top] is one in a long line of garments chosen by young people, usually boys, and inscribed with meanings suggesting that they are 'up to no good'. In the past, such appropriation was usually restricted to membership of specific youth cultures - leather jackets, bondage trousers - but nowadays it is the norm among young people to flag up their music and cultural preferences in this way, hence the adoption of the hoodie by boys across the boundaries of age, ethnicity and class." [link]

In May 2005, the largest shopping centre in the UK, Bluewater in Kent, caused outrage by launching a Code of Conduct which bans its shoppers from sporting hoodies or baseball caps. Hoodies and baseball caps are still on sale there, however. John Prescott welcomed the move, citing that he had felt threatened by the presence of hooded teenagers at a motorway service station [link]. Prime Minister Tony Blair has openly supported this stance and vowed to clamp down on the anti-social behaviour with which hoody wearers are sometimes associated. In February 2006, a 56 year old teacher who was wearing a hooded top was asked to remove it when entering a Tesco store in Swindon. According to the teacher, she was wearing the hood because "my hair's a mess". The shop said it was taking action to "make sure this doesn't happen again." [link]

However, in 2005, Coombeshead College in the south-west of England, allowed the hoodie to become part of the school uniform. The principal, Richard Haigh stated that the move would help to calm some of, what he called 'hysteria', surrounding the issue of hoodie wearing. [link]

Hoodie is also a record released by Lady Sovereign to back the Save The Hoodie Campaign.

Hoodie

Social fear

See also