Wearing a Hooded Sweatshirt Could Cost You $500
Wearing a Hooded Sweatshirt Could Cost You $500
Kate Mara and Max Minghella wear hooded sweatshirts. Photo: Getty Images
Beware: Normcore could cost you. A proposed bill in Oklahoma would make it illegal to wear a hooded sweatshirt in public. Since the 1920s, the state has had a law on the books banning hoods during crimes, a regulation instituted to combat offenses carried out by the Ku Klux Klan, but the new proposal takes the existing law to a whole new level.
According to local news station KFOR, wearing a hood, or a similar head covering, that conceal’s one’s identity, even if the individual were not involved in a crime, would be punishable by a fine of up to $500.
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State Sen. Don Barrington, the author of the legislation, explains that the bill is intended to “make businesses and public places safer by ensuring that people cannot conceal their identities for the purpose of crime or harassment.”
Some exemptions would be put in place, such as for religious purposes, Halloween costumes, safety or medical reasons, parades, circuses, sports, mascots, and weather gear, but these immunities don’t include everyday dress. Just walking around town in a hoodie sweatshirt—a style that’s been around for decades—could earn an offender a misdemeanor.
The proposed prohibition come at a time when the hoodie’s both fashionable—Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg brought the style into the spotlight and athleisure is on the rise—and political. It became a charged symbol after Travyon Martin, the unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot in 2012, was wearing a hoodie and many co-opted the piece as a protest symbol.
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While there are federal, state, and local laws on the books that outlaw nudity and public indecency, official rules usually don’t get involved with the fashion police. In the early-2000s when pants sagging was popular, some states went so far as to make exposing too much underwear unlawful, but people have since started wearing belts and the laws have disappeared. Needless to say, there are far more important things for the government and law enforcement to worry about.
