Over the weekend Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong tweeted that he’d been kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight for having saggy pants. The incident has left many questions unanswered, and frankly the whole thing has shaken me to my core, leading me to question many of the truths I previously believed to be universal and undeniable.
An ABC7 news producer who was on the same flight told the station that a flight attendant approached Armstrong as the plane was getting ready to take off and asked him to hike his pants higher. The producer, Cindy Qiu, says Armstrong initially responded by asking the attendant if there weren’t “better things to do than worry about that?”
But the attendant persisted and told Armstrong he could be ejected for his refusal to comply. When Armstrong insisted he was just trying to get to his seat, he and a traveling companion were taken off the plane.
Armstrong tipped the world off to the incident on Twitter, naturally…
So here’s how this is screwing my head all up: I’ve long been a believer that age shouldn’t inhibit anyone to do anything, that conventional wisdoms and the rules of society that dictate how people are supposed to behave at certain ages are antiquated bullsh*t. You’re a straight, 50-ish white man and you enjoy listening to Katy Parry on the treadmill at the gym? Knock yourself out. You’ll get not judgement from me.
But I loathe the saggy pants thing, so, so hard, and a nearly 40 year-old musician who isn’t a rapper with saggy pants is something I find especially loathsome. Am I turning into a prudish old? Should I just give up any and all cool cred I currently possess? You know what — I’m willing to lay it all on the line over this: PULL UP YOUR FREAKING PANTS!!! I loathe saggy pants almost as much as Madonna loathes hydrangeas!
Also, what the hell is Billie Joe Armstrong doing flying Southwest? SO MANY QUESTIONS!