This bus is ours. I took hold of my partner’s hand. We tightened our lips and gazed rigidly forward, hoping that whatever the males were saying didn’t affect us.
The other night, my girlfriend and I were drowsily glancing out the window while riding on the upper deck of one of London’s flashy red buses
when we lurched to a stop. Six lads suddenly climbed up onto the second deck. They were all covered in hoods. The lads walked to the rear and started making a commotion,
yelling, laughing, and conversing in an oddly juvenile patois. Their juvenile singsong wasn’t very menacing, but its swagger made their point quite clear: Ahegao Hoodie
We later discovered that this specific scenario is not brand-new. In London, hoodies—youthful miscreants so termed because of the hooded sweatshirt that has become
their signature look—have come to represent urban danger. A few days prior, we had witnessed a second group of twelve identically attired youngsters yelling at and frightening Underground riders.
These days, it’s common to overhear graphic stories of harassment, muggings, and stalking at London dinner tables.
Rap musicians have canonized the hoodie in ballads, London’s newspapers (“Grandad Dies in Hooded Horror”) treat him like Jack
the Ripper, and politicians of all hues have looked for hints about British youth culture in his unshaven visage. The hoodie appears to be holding all of Britain’s worries right now, even if he would probably be less interested in knowing that.
After the course, Britain has traditionally used its Angry Young Men to exorcise its fears. There were angry rock bands like the Rolling Stones, angry punk bands like
the Sex Pistols (“All we’re trying to do is destroy everything”), a second generation of brash novelists that included Ian McEwan and Martin Amis, and last but not least, the benighted soccer hooligan, of which Britain has bred a fragrant and seemingly unflagging breed.
The hoodie is a completely unique kind of job. He has a reputation for “loafing loutishness, truancy, petty theft, and his tendency to find support and consolation in the gang,” to quote the tabloid the Evening Standard earlier this year.
The typical age of hoodies is early to late adolescence. They prowl the nighttime streets and retail centers aiming to cause chaos; in May of last year, the biggest shopping center in England outlawed the wearing of hooded sweatshirts.
Anti-social behavior orders, or “ASBOS,” are accumulated by hoodies and displayed as badges of their impudence. The hoodie has come to represent youthful misbehavior in England:
The BBC reported earlier this month that compared to their European contemporaries, 15-year-old English males ate supper with their families less frequently. What do these lads wear, anyone?
