If you’re not fond of tights (which is wack), you might want to keep your uptight views to yourself — or else prepare to suffer the wrath of the Internet’s infinite rage.
That’s the hard lesson Alan Sorrentino of Rhode Island learned after writing an off-the-cuff letter to his local newspaper decrying “yoga pants as daily wear.”
Related: Watch As Dozens March To Gay Man’s House With Antigay Message
He’s now receiving death threats and hundreds of visitors are coming to his house accusing him of body-shaming.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Here’s the letter that causing all the drama:
To the editor:
The absolute worst thing to ever happen in women fashion is the recent development of yoga pants as daily wear outside the yoga studio.
Not since the mini-skirt has there been something worn by so many women who should never have it on in the first place.
From casual to formal, weddings, funerals, shopping, and even for the workplace, yoga pants are everywhere on women of all ages, usually paired with a blousy top and a pony tail hairdo. What a disaster!
Like the mini-skirt, yoga pants can be adorable on children and young women who have the benefit of nature’s blessing of youth. However, on mature, adult women there is something bizarre and disturbing about the appearance they make in public. Maybe it’s the unforgiving perspective they provide, inappropriate for general consumption, TMI, or the spector of someone coping poorly with their weight or advancing age that makes yoga pants so weird in public.
A nice pair of tailored slacks, jeans, or anything else would be better than those stinky, tacky, ridiculous looking yoga pants. They do nothing to compliment a women over 20 years old. In fact, the look is bad. Do yourself a favor, grow up and stop wearing them in public.
Besides, why would you want to wear something that’s seen on dozens of other women every day, everywhere? I thought women didn’t like doing that for obvious reasons. Yoga pants belong in the yoga studio. What’s next? Wearing a “Speedo” to the supermarket? Imagine if men did that. Yuck!
To all yoga pant wearers, I struggle with my own physicality as I age. I don’t want to struggle with yours. Thanks,
Alan Sorrentino
Barrington
We imagine if men started wearing Speedos to the supermarket, we’d eat out less– but that’s besides the point.
Not surprisingly, the deeply obnoxious letter inspired loads of negative comments and angry letters. But then things went totally mad.
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As Legal Insurrection reports, a protest was organized for Sunday, October 22 that called for women to march in a “peaceful protest” past Sorentino’s house.
You can see the Facebook event page here.
On Twitter, organizers subsequently compared the situation to French police making Muslim women remove their burkinis on the beach.
Solidarity with all women fighting dress restriction and body policing around the world. https://t.co/QhNXHPuZjf #yogapantsparade
— Yoga Pants Parade (@paradeyogapants) October 23, 2016
Now, every publication known to man is covering the event, and turning Sorrentino into the new face of misogynist body-shaming:
Now, Sorrentino claims he’s been receiving death threats from extremely limber people.
Watch his interview with WPRO below:
Heywood Jablowme
I hadn’t heard he is gay; that puts an unexpected spin on it. Well… he was right the first time. For whatever reason, women dress like slobs now much more than men do. If men dressed that way we’d be mistaken for homeless. But before I say more, I should wait until Brian our resident misogynist chimes in!
ErikO
Why is this news?
everybodywinsyay
Feminism is a scourge.
dwes09
All you little right wing snowflakes need to grow some balls. NOBODY rails against older men in shorts or 80 year old men in tank tops. NOBODY rails against men in cycling gear, or fat men in T-shirts. Please get over yourselves, and understand the world is not about what makes you comfortable, and that other people are as entitled as you are to do as they please.
I heard on NPR (which does not mention his gayness), that he was whining about his “free speech” rights, as so many of you little trump-sheep snowflakes do so often. If you hadn’t slept through social studies/civics in middle school you’d understand that free speech refers only to governmental interference in free discourse. In the public forum speech has consequences (as it should); say something stupid and people correctly react. That is what this guy did. No different at all from a straight man complaining about gay men “not acting normal”. Poor little regressive snowflakes! Anything bumps against your fragile world view and you melt.
Egemen
harika bbi caht
Egemen
Why is this news?
frankcar1965
@dwes09: You are a twat, free speech applies to EVERYONE, You need to brush up yourself, Twatface. Big mouths always need to sound off even when they are wrong. Probably a nasty old, know-it-all Queen. He has every right to say what he wants and they have every right to yell their heads off about it.
BigJohnSF
We always wore speedos to the grocery store on Fire Island.
PrinceofReason
People should wear whatever they want, it makes America great again.
viveutvivas
Oh please, ever listen to women talking about the way other women dress, or the way men dress? The average American woman has become a slob. Even at the gym, the smelly people in unwashed clothing are almost always women.
Xzamilloh
As Willam said, “It’s okay to make fun of fat guys, but not fat girls. Because they kill themselves.”
Brian
Feminists hate gay men because gay men aren’t afraid to criticize women’s double standards. Yoga pants are for yoga, not the streets. If men wore yoga pants in public en masse, I bet these same women would be complaining about it.
David
I tend to agree with the letter. Not that I’ve seen a lot of women in yoga pants but for the last few years it seems to me women have gotten more dumpy when it comes to clothes, especially in the workplace. More guys seem to be paying more attention to what they’re wearing.
dwes09
@frankcar1965: Read what the constitution and letters from the founders say. Look at the consequent court cases regarding obscenity, and the relatively recent removal of “community standards” from it. I will excuse your idiotic rebuttal as you are clearly not an intelligent man (or “boi” perhaps).
Here is the text: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Notice the reference to CONGRESS MAKING LAWS, not to people responding to stupid speech (the fool who thinks he has some right to determine what women should wear). As for references to me as an old Queen, I’m no queen, but I am 65. Perhaps you are actually so dull that you have not yet realized the alternative to getting old is to be dead. You’re pretty sad, and my statements regarding the first amendment are correct. Speech always has consequences, the constitution assures that prosecution BY THE LEGISLATURE is not one of them. The constitution does not say people cannot call others out for their stupidity. So I do not have to “respect” you calling me a twat, but can verbally rip you a new one for being not just stupid, but arrogant with no real reason to be so.
dwes09
@Brian: “Feminists hate gay men because gay men aren’t afraid to criticize women’s double standards. Yoga pants are for yoga, not the streets. If men wore yoga pants in public en masse, I bet these same women would be complaining about it.”
Femninists have always been allies in the fight for LGBT rights. But as usual, you never let reality intrude into your world. If men wore yoga pants in public, nobody would complain, except perhaps you. The double standard is that folks of your ilk feel they have some right to not see what they don’t want to in public spaces.
dwes09
@David: “I tend to agree with the letter. Not that I’ve seen a lot of women in yoga pants but for the last few years it seems to me women have gotten more dumpy when it comes to clothes, especially in the workplace. More guys seem to be paying more attention to what they’re wearing.”
And somehow you think that women have a responsibility to dress up for your sake while men have less of one? Interesting that you base response on what “seems” to be as opposed to what you actually have seen. Like several of the commenters here you seem to be living in your imagination rather than reality. It would be nice if both men and women felt the need to present themselves attractively in public, but that is just my BELIEF, and neither you nor I have any right to demand others share it. So long as people BEHAVE civilly, they can dress and way they damn please.
Chris
He should have signed his letter “Tim Gunn” and told women who wear yoga pants that they “can’t make it work.”
Dymension
I don’t like them either. I don’t think you can go around in yoga pants and then get upset that people make comments, whether lewd or otherwise. I think it’s bringing attention to yourself, but then decrying the kind of attention you get.
Jack Meoff
https://youtu.be/CYRENWT8lz8
Jack Meoff
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjkk4WS3_TPAhXIoJQKHeYNBt0Q3ywIHDAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCYRENWT8lz8&usg=AFQjCNFVI6p0v88yPy_BmztIH00DaLEykw&sig2=GgHy4WAWZlNZoTcNodnZsQ&bvm=bv.136593572,d.dGo
dwes09
@Dymension: When you get dressed in the morning, do you do it based on the possibility that foolish people are going to pass judgement on you, or do you do it based on comfort, ambient temperature, activities for the day and so on? Unless you do it based on the possibility that some stranger might think you are too old or too heavy or too unattractive to wear something you are in no position to criticize others for their choice of dress. Granted you are free to do it, but others are free to call you on it. Essentially, a woman who puts on yoga pants is perfectly reasonable in not giving a damn what people think, but a man who thinks they are the arbiter of appropriate street-wear is not reasonable at all.
It is entirely the same as people passing judgement on the behavior of gay men in the street. You are exactly the same as the person who says (not thinks, but says) that gay people have no business holding hands in the street, as it is a sin. There is no difference. And though they certainly have the right to say it, they are betraying a small and weak mind.
Poncho Sanchez
I do see quite a few men in those nylon biking pants, and I love looking at the bulge…..the crotch that is…..anyway, I think heavy set African women in the traditional flowing garb probably look the best, the yoga stretch pants is a horrible trend:
https://www.google.com/search?q=large+african+women+dress&biw=1920&bih=901&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGm-C67PTPAhUGQSYKHfdtD30Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=heavy+set+african+women+dress&imgrc=KkGLTXE6n4xOuM%3A
Heywood Jablowme
@dwes09: “NOBODY rails against older men in shorts or 80 year old men in tank tops… or fat men in T-shirts.”
Yes they do! Yes WE do! Are you serious? Criticism and making fun of ALL of those guys is very common!
You included “men in cycling gear” for some reason; okay, no one makes fun of them as long as they’re cycling. Even the original author said that yoga pants are fine FOR YOGA.
Look at “casual Friday” at offices in recent years: the men all wear khakis and collared shirts, but the women all dress like hookers circa “Pretty Woman” and they’re mostly way too fat to pull that off. It’s not a good look, and as someone says above, Tim Gunn would not approve!
And what’s with your insulting non sequitur that any gay guy with sartorial standards must be some sort of right-winger? Gay men traditionally know how to dress appropriately, and we often take an interest in clothing. Suddenly that’s somehow “right wing”? Is this a rule you just made up? Very strange. Please stick to the political posts; you are out of your league here.
Heywood Jablowme
@dwes09: “When you get dressed in the morning, do you do it based on the possibility that foolish people are going to pass judgement on you, or do you do it based on comfort, ambient temperature, activities for the day and so on? Unless you do it based on the possibility that some stranger might think you are too old or too heavy or too unattractive to wear something you are in no position to criticize others for their choice of dress.”
(Gasp.) Uh… okay, I do all that stuff so YES I am in a position to criticize! Yes, the “strangers” figure into it. Why do you assume that all strangers are “foolish”? And where did you get this weird idea that comfort is incompatible with looking good/appropriate? That’s not a contradiction. And YES, I’m old enough that I DO worry about strangers perhaps making fun of, say, overly youthful clothing. (Eventually I give such stuff away to a younger friend or to Goodwill.)
Anyone who’s not a frickin’ sociopath SHOULD be concerned about such things. Are you a sociopath? Are you sure you’re really gay? Since you say you’re 65, have you been retired for awhile and you just don’t give a sh*t what you look like anymore? Or maybe you never go outside anymore except to Walmart? 🙂
Heywood Jablowme
@dwes09: OH, damn, I think I figured out your problem: do you live in Florida? That’s it, this is one of those “Florida man” things, right? LOL.
Chris2016
I can’t remember where I saw it – I think it was from Christina Hoff Sommers, but she basically said: “If you have the time to protest over this, you’re life is amazing”. Couldn’t have summarized it any better. But yet most of these fools probably think that their life is horrible because of the all knowing and oppressive ‘patriarchy’. Two things: If this is what you consider the patriarchy, thank you for proving that it clearly doesn’t exist in the western world; and if you’re life is horrible, and you’re one of these protesters, it probably has little to do with men, and alot to do wit the fact that you’re a major buzzkill/generally insufferable.
Daniel-Reader
Look at the pictures of the march. Women who wear makeup and then complain about society controlling them? Take off the makeup to be taken seriously.
desertguy
Uh…..I agree with him. Yoga pants belong in the studio….not out in public. Yoga pants are a privilege. Not a right!
Karlis
I am a gay man, but as a male of the species, I have it programmed somewhere in my brain that a woman may at some point ask “does this make me fat?”, and the male of the species is automatically expected to say “why, no, not at all.” Irrespective of whether the issue has to do with yoga pants or ball gowns, this guy should have kept his opinions to himself.
David
I don’t care how a person wants to present him or herself. If you want to be a slob go ahead. If you don’t respect yourself enough to care about your presentation to others, again that’s your affair. I just have to bear the assault to my eyes.
Brian
Women think they look sexy in yoga pants. That’s why they wear them even when they’re not doing yoga.
Unless a woman looks sexy all the time, she thinks her husband will turn to men for sex. A woman’s fear of male homosexual desire drives her behavior.
ggore
There’s an OLD adage, and it applies to BOTH men and women: “Just because they make it in your size, it doesn’t mean you have to wear it!”
I have seen lots of people wearing yoga pants that are sucked up into EVERY crack & crevice that they should NOT be going, and I have seen lots of men, of all ages, wearing clothing that should not be on their bodies as well. It applies to everyone.
Heywood Jablowme
@Karlis: “I am a gay man, but as a male of the species, I have it programmed somewhere in my brain that a woman may at some point ask “does this make me fat?”, and the male of the species is automatically expected to say “why, no, not at all.”
Not necessarily. If you’re the gay best friend maybe it’s your cue to say something like “hmmmmm… I think I can show you something that will really work!”
batesmotel
It’s not misogyny. Neither men or women should wear those horrible spandex pants. But it’s women guilty of it. It doesn’t matter how you are, those things are just vile. He is right!
salumbre
Well, Alan has a right to his opinion, and to express it (full disclosure: I’m with him), and those women are entitled to look ugly in yoga pants. It’s a free world.
To wear age and body appropriate clothing is an art. It does NOT mean that people who are older and/or who do not look like models should wear the Western equivalent of the burka. It means that there are ways to look good, to stay current and even to shine (not to mention be comfortable), whatever your age and/or body type. And they definitely DON’T include yoga pants.
brambleyo
Lol I hope these women realize that it was satire and that the guy was joking… Yikes. Everyone is offended nowadays
Captain Obvious
This is hilarious. Women are the first to criticize men for dressing inappropriately and criticize each other as well. I’m getting sick of this attack on men for having opinions and voices.
If it’s not this it’s SJWs crying about something else utterly random someone said and then going into attack mode as an angry mob. They take things so far trying to get people fired, trying to effect their lives, and “take them down”. It’s disgusting.
They claim they’re making positive change but who are they supposed to be emulating? Civil rights weren’t won this way. Gay rights weren’t really won this way even though some did act like that(and still do).
Yoga pants should be banned the same way that stupid pajama bottom fad was banned. Young men were wearing pajama bottoms outdoors and people banned it because you could see their penises. How is this different?
Put real clothes on. You can’t claim men are objectifying you one minute and then next have everything squeezed so tight people can see your skin through your “outfit”.
These same women also got uptight about men making fun of them by wearing yoga pants as well. They thought that was disgusting but it’s “cute” when they do it…
1EqualityUSA
I picked on Ted Cruz for wearing ill-fitting 501 jeans…so grateful he never discovered spandex.