The great debate: Are leggings pants?

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It was the greatest debate until the dispute over whether Kim Kardashian’s wedding was staged: Do leggings qualify as pants?

Clinging to ladies’ (and some mens’) hips, thighs and other unmentionables in the past few years, leggings have caused some people to double-take and question their use.

Although few Central Michigan University students complained about the trend, most agree there are special circumstances.

“I hate when bony girls wear them,” said Ferndale junior Kyle Funk. “The girl has to have some curves.”

Byron Center sophomore Michael Gnass agreed if a girl is going to make leggings pretend pants, she has to be of a certain proportion.

“Girls should only wear leggings if they look good in them,” he said. “Nobody wants to look at cottage cheese wrapped up in some leggings.”

Even 398,619 Facebook users united in the fight against the use of leggings as pants by liking the “Leggings are NOT Pants” fan page.

But senior Laura Stoeckle said no one is forced to decipher.

“If you don’t want to see it, then don’t look,” the Bay Port native said. “If guys can walk around with their pants down to their knees with their butts hanging out, then I can be fully covered and just a little … tighter.”

Sporting leggings as pants isn’t as much scandalous as it is immodest, Department of Human Environmental Studies faculty member Wendy Honey said.

“It was about three years ago I was in the airport with my mother and she couldn’t believe that a girl was only wearing tights and not pants,” she said. “It’s like you go ‘Wait a minute, that person doesn’t have pants on.’”

Honey said seeing leggings worn as pants is so common now that she’s just used to it.

Compared to the ’60s, people are not that exposed, she said.

“People in the late ’60s wore really short miniskirts with just tights or hose,” Honey said. “If you wore your stuff long, you were out of fashion.”

To avoid looking “trashy,” Wyandotte senior Alex Michael said ladies should keep their goods covered.

“I think leggings look okay if a girl wears a long shirt or sweater,” she said. “If they wear a short shirt, it just looks bad.”

Honey takes neither side of the debate, but offers advice for those partial to the tight tights.

“If you’re going to wear them, just be careful,” she said.