Sagging is a manner of wearing trousers (slacks, shorts, pants or jeans) below the waist, hanging below the waist area and therefore revealing much of the underwear. Sagging is predominantly a male fashion.

An individual that participates in the practice of sagging may be referred to as a sagger.

Dear Luckey,

I am writing this letter to you because I feel that you could give me your honest opinion about this subject. I have been with my boyfriend Joel* for three years now. People call us ‘Beyonce & Jay Z’ of our town, because we are so different. I am the proper girl from the upper-middle class family and he is the thugged out dude from the streets. Somehow our relationship works and he is really a good dude. My only issue is the way that he dress, more so on the way that he wears his pants. He sags his pants but instead of wearing his pants just a little below his waist, he wears lets them hang below his butt cheeks.

Even when we got to church or some sort of social function, he dresses like that. My daddy thinks Joel* is gay but I know for a fact that Joel* is not gay, but I don’t understand why a straight man would want to walk around with his butt cheeks exposed. Can you shed some light on this matter and you think Joel* might be playing for the other team? Is this just some sick fashion fad? Help a sista out!

Your biggest fan,
Jennifer*

*not his real name

Dear Jennifer,

Thanks for reaching out to me. I remember when this whole sagging trend started in the early 80s. It really wasn’t a big deal until the early 00s and schools were suspending the students for wearing their pants too low.

Of course, not too many GROWN men were walking around,wearing their pants like that and it was never below the cheeks. These days it seems like everybody is sagging and most of the time it’s below the cheek.

Originally, this was a prison code that signified that you were another prisoner’s property, ie bitch. ‘Punks’ (as they called them in prison) were forced to wear their pants this way so it would be easier for their masters to pull their pants down and butt-fuck them. Somehow this became a 1990′s fashion trend. I learned this from watching a TV special on prison life. The inmate who related the story was an elderly black gentleman who had been sentenced to life in prison and had been there for over fifty years. He marveled how such a mark of shame became a fashion statement. He said that younger inmates don’t believe him when he tells them but swears it’s the truth. I believed him.

Also in the 80s when the crack epidemic plagued our community,
so many young men started getting arrested for selling drugs and when they got out, a lot of the other young guys wanted to imitate them and their style. Since they were used to baggy clothing in prison, the baggy style became popular and it was common for guys to sag their jeans

Only proof of this I know is that before the late 80′s and the drug rush, nobody wore saggy jeans or baggy ones. After all those guys got let out and the other guys saw their style, that’s when it became popular, everybody wanted to dress like them.

It also happened in slavery because masters didn’t give the slaves belts, that way running would be more difficult. The same with the prison system (they don’t allow you to have belts and shoe laces)

Isn’t it funny how so many Black men think sagging their pants is a fashion statement but it’s really slave mentality.

Most people say these claims are untrue but it IS true. Did you know that saggin spelled backwards is niggas?

YUP..

Besides what kind a grown man, who claims he is STRAIGHT, walks around, saggin his pants below his butt cheeks, with his ass out and visible?

Sounds kinda homo erotic to me. And YES we look because sometimes it looks enticing. It’s the same when a heterosexual male checks out a woman’s butt or boobies.  There are some women, who appreciates the look of a man’s butt but it’s not the same.

I ask these men, who sag their pants why they do it and I never get a solid answer. Most of the  time they get VERY defensive about it.

I don’t understand saggin trend.  I’m just trying to picture myself as a ‘straight’ guy who walks out of the house everyday, checks myself out in the mirror, and then pulls my pants down below my butt cheeks and says, “Ok, now I’m ready.”

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