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Why Jeans Are Evil

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 16, 2009 7:47 AM CDT

(Newser) – Across America, men, women, and children are wearing the same pants: jeans. Not only a sartorial crime, the trend is an “obnoxious misuse of freedom,” rails George Will of the Washington Post. Levi Strauss set out to make tough pants for 49ers who spent all day in the mud, and “it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags into golf carts to go around dressed for driving steers.”

Today’s denim is a “carefully calculated costume,” designed to look casual, indifferent, exactly as slovenly as the next guy. Actually dressing well “would be to commit the sin of lookism—of believing that appearance matters,” Will explains. “That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste.”

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American Idol Superstar David Archuleta at Aeropostale in New York City for Aeropostale and teen not-for-profit DoSomething.org's Teens for Jeans campaign. (PRNewsFoto/DoSomething.org/Derek Reed)

Daniel Radcliffe auctions the Lucky Brand jeans he wore in Equus to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

Alison Sweeney kicks off an on-line auction with live bidding for "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest's jeans. (AP Photo/GE Profile, Stuart Ramson)

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The enemy, aka Neil Diamond (GOODGIRLBADGIRLVIP)

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For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule:
If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute
Grace Kelly. - George F. Will

Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults, and cartoons for adults. - George Will

Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" — people who play video games — are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. - George Will

Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy's catechism of leveling — thou shalt not dress better than society's most slovenly. - George F. Will

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