Did you ever get jean-shamed in school if you didn’t tight roll/peg your jeans?
Posted by L31121@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 90 comments
I remember hearing kids calling them “bell bottoms” or singing a song about it that goes something like 🎵tight at the top, and loose at the bottom, bell bottoms 🎵
jennyann726@reddit
No but I got shamed for my jeans not being long enough.
FlyingSquirrelDog@reddit
I will never forget the day I realized that I didn’t need to peg my jeans anymore. Freedom. It was also the same summer between seventh and eighth grade that I cut the perm out of my hair, got a short bob, and stopped being a slave to hairspray.
I was very petite and no pants were short enough for me, and my mom thought I was going to grow more so she refused to hem them. My rolled up pants often looked like I had donuts at the bottom of them with 7 or 8 turns. It was hilarious and frustrating at the same time. That summer I also just cut my damn pants to fit. I was grounded for a month but freer than ever. Lol.
MisRandomness@reddit
No but I was jean shamed for having high waters
Significant_Skill205@reddit
Yes...in '94 when everyone dressed like Kurt Coban at my school, I went through a growth spurt and my mom refused to buy me new pants. So my socks were showing and I got teased all the time. It was a fashion sin to have your socks showing. I don't wear capri pants because they remind me of being forced to wear high-waters.
MisRandomness@reddit
Omg same, all these women’s pants now are cropped leg and are too short. I already have long legs and can wear about 2 brands because none come in size long anymore.
Significant_Skill205@reddit
I feel your pain...I'm 5'9"
Steel1000@reddit
I grew 6” one summer.
Yea 6”
First football game we all had to wear our dress clothes….i was mortified
UbiquitousBot@reddit
I grew like 9 inches in middle school. My jeans didn't stand a chance at keeping up. Kids kept saying "where's the flood?". I think this is how i ended up with the jncos that trailed the floor in high school.
PhoneJazz@reddit
High waters was the biggest sin.
For most Xennials, “pegging” or rolling was after our time.
mnemonicmonkey@reddit
False. This was quintessential 6th grade.
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
I’m a 1977 xennial and pegging our jeans/pants was 89-92ish
UrbanPanic@reddit
Pegging also depended on the shoes. Tight rolls were for Eastlands, not Reebok Pumps.
ThatGhoulAva@reddit
Same. I remember tight rolling in middle school but it was gone by high school.
L31121@reddit (OP)
Right. It would’ve been the older kids doing the shaming/teasing/bullying
NW_Forester@reddit
Yep. I'm 6'6" barefoot, I had years I grew 4+ inches but at best would get new jeans start of the year.
lastminutealways@reddit
Same. Plus size tall long legs girl on a tight budget didn’t stand a chance in the early 90’s.
MaracujaBarracuda@reddit
That’s how my mom ended up making me do my own laundry starting in late elementary school. I kept complaining she was shrinking my jeans which were already borderline too short. She said fine, you do it then if you want everything washed and dried cold.
BritOnTheRocks@reddit
Same, except we called them “half masts.”
L31121@reddit (OP)
Me too, but my wife straightened me out before we got married 😉
JustPickOne_JC@reddit
Same. Finding tall inseam jeans back in the day was rough.
SkylarSea@reddit
This style was very popular when I was in 7th grade ('91 to '92). I made the awful mistake apparently of wearing this style in the beginning of 8th grade and got teased for it. Styles flitted in and out so fast back then it was hard to keep up.
mostlygray@reddit
We French rolled our jeans or pinned them. We pinned our Zubaz. It was out of hand. Even gas stations had tiny gold safety pins at the counter.
That trend lasted about 2 years and then was gone with the Zubaz and no-one spoke of it again.
CuriousLands@reddit
I don't think I ever got Nean-shamed for anything, or heard others get that.
I did get bullied for my fashion in grade 7, though, because my family was poor but I like interesting clothes - which meant it was abundantly clear that I only owned 3 shirts. And wearing them over and over got me put on the chopping block by all the "cool" kids.
iputmytrustinyou@reddit
Bootcut, flare and skater (wide leg) and track pants were popular when I graduated high school in 1998.
Alloy & Delia*s were peak clothing magazines. Adidas, Mudd, Sketchers and Nike were popular for bottoms and shoes. This is all likely location specific. There was no internet purchasing back then, so your fashion was limited to where you lived and traveled. I lived in the middle of fucking nowhere, so getting my grandmother to buy me stuff from magazines was my main fashion option. We had JC Penny and typical mall stores, but that was a 45 minute drive, so that didn’t happen often because it turned into an all day trip.
I have no idea what tight roll/peg jeans looked like. Was this a specific year? Or was it a specific gender?
hungrypotato0853@reddit
I have no idea what either of those terms mean, so... no?
ShiraPiano@reddit
When I was in school you were only shamed if you wore high waters. I and every other girl wore flares and the guys were baggy or insanely big JNCOs.
Matt_Benatar@reddit
Oh god, I almost forgot about that practice ever existing. I have to admit, I partook. I also had a side spike haircut. 🤮
TransportationOk657@reddit
Lol, the side spike! I had that, too. I thought it was the coolest hair style ever when I was rocking it in 7th grade!
Matt_Benatar@reddit
God it was terrible! I don’t know if I have any old photos - hopefully I don’t. If there’s no proof, it never happened! 😂
TransportationOk657@reddit
Unfortunately, my bad 90s haircut sin is immortalized in my 7th grade yearbook photo!
ExampleMysterious870@reddit
I had the same big pants/jeans every other kid who listened to hard rock or metal had.
frustratedComments@reddit
I was the metal kid that didn’t wear that shit. I looked down on the Korn/pantera/tool/nin kids. I listened to Cannibal Corpse and In Flames in high school and no one else even knew who they were.
ExampleMysterious870@reddit
Cool story bro
frustratedComments@reddit
Thx
Character_Bend_5824@reddit
Sounds like an '80s trend. I'm just a hint too young. I do remember, for guys, there was a time before no-show socks when it was either white crew or quarter socks with Airwalks or Vans. And now the crew socks seem to be coming back-- with above the knee shorts! I wouldn't be caught dead with shorts above the knee in the '90s.
BinocularDisparity@reddit
My mom didn’t understand that children can be shamed and embarrassed by their peers, so until I could buy my own clothes I was simply shamed
Intelligent_Serve_30@reddit
Yes, but it was not jeans but those tan Dickies chinos. I remember girls stapling their pants hems into the peg style.
Middle school, specifically 6th and 7th grade (91-93), the girl style at my school was baggy tan Dickies, solid color t-shirt tucked in, kswiss shoes and the hair was a slicked back half ponytail with the "bangs" curled in spirals down one side your face or a top bun with at least two scrunchies around it. Hoop earrings and a thick gold necklace. Heavy eyeliner with no wings and black lip liner filled in with a dark magenta/red.
Writeforwhiskey@reddit
Honestly, at my school, you'd get roasted if you tight rolled your jeans. "Ol' strangled ankle ass" "Your ankles look arrested" "OK suburbs". In my school girls wore tight 90s bell bottoms and guys wore baggy jeans.
Mindless_Debate_2649@reddit
I’m a millennial, and in the early 00s if you wore tapered/non flare you got shamed for wearing “ankle biters.” High waters were a no no too, if it’s raining the bottom six inches of your jeans better be soaked.
_ism_@reddit
I don't remember this but I went to a uniforms school. We only saw each other in normal clothes for picture day. The thing they shamed you for was wearing Walmart or Kmart brands.
Dazzling-Pace-7134@reddit
No. I wore hand me down '70's clothes back in the '80's. My pants were bell bottoms. So they were easy to roll up. And I did it, to his the fact that I was wearing 70's clothes.
One_Maize1836@reddit
I was a kid who didn't like the sensation of tight jeans (my mom probably bought them too small) so I wore sweatpants to school a lot. One day in fifth grade I wore jeans to school with the bottoms rolled and I specifically remember my frenemy from down the block saying, "You actually wore jeans today! And they're NICE jeans, not like those bell bottoms you wore before!"
queenofcaffeine76@reddit
Yep,. Unless they were tapered, you had to fold over & roll up. Everything else was called bell bottoms. Anyone else remember the skinny jeans with zippers at the ankles?
After_Preference_885@reddit
I definitely wanted skinny jeans with ankle zippers and the ones with the cross cross cutouts down the side of the leg.
queenofcaffeine76@reddit
I had the ones with the zippers. Always wanted the crosscut ones but never got them :(
Think we're too old to pull it off if they come back into style? Lol
hombre_bu@reddit
No, I a had so much more uncool shit on kids’ radar for them to focus on my jeans
SharMarali@reddit
Nah, I was a big nerd, there were plenty of other things to make fun of me about. Nobody ever bothered me about my jeans. My pathetic attempts at doing poofy bangs were fodder enough.
Killersavage@reddit
By the time I figured out how to roll my jeans it was already going out of style. That was when I learned not to give a single fuck about fashion trends.
Unit_79@reddit
Nope. Wore corduroys for two years. Last two years I switched it up to all black fatigues from the army surplus store. These days it’s black jeans with a rolled cuff.
AmanitaMikescaria@reddit
Yes, for wearing Wranglers by some fashion victims wearing baggy JNCO style jeans.
Astrazigniferi@reddit
Nope. By the time I was the age anyone cared, no one would have been caught dead in tapered jeans of any kind. Bootcut, wide leg, and baby bells only. Even straight cuts were too narrow.
TransportationOk657@reddit
Rolling up jeans was never a thing where I grew up. But as others have mentioned, high water jeans were a good way to get teased.
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
I’m a 77 xennial and we rolled our jeans in 89-92 when I was in Jr high, but not after that
TransportationOk657@reddit
I was in 6th grade (our first year of middle school) in '90-'91. This fad may have passed by that time. As I mentioned, I remember my older sister (born '69) and her friends rolling their pants in the mid 80s. I was in elementary school at that time.
To be honest, I don't even really remember what the hell we were wearing in elementary school. I don't think we gave a hoot about fashion or clothing during those years. It wasn't until middle school that kids (myself included) began to pay attention to what everyone was wearing, and I don't recall anyone rockin' rolled up jeans.
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
You and I probably grew up in a similar area because same.
TiEmEnTi@reddit
Quite the opposite rolling up/cuffing the legs of your jeans at my high school if you were a guy was one of those weird things that people thought was a secret gay signal like which side your piercings were on or which side your belt hung to.
frustratedComments@reddit
No. But JNCO’s were huge in my school. Always thought they looked stupid
-Disagreeable-@reddit
You were downvoted by a mouth breaker, for sure. I got you. They did look stupid. Even then, but especially now looking back.
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
Mouth breather?
frustratedComments@reddit
Neanderthal
-Disagreeable-@reddit
Yea. Mouth breaker. Window licker. Short bus rider. You know
SilentSerel@reddit
Same here. We had JNCOs and flares.
theguineapigssong@reddit
In fairness, they only looked stupid because they were stupid.
KnownNormie@reddit
One of the guys in my friend group showed up to school with the long size sticker on the back of his new jeans. We noticed in the morning, but let him go all day before pointing it out to him. He kept asking us what was so funny all day.
-Disagreeable-@reddit
I got harassed about my jeans for a plethora of reasons. It’s why I hate them to this day and why I hopped on to the punk scene and it changed the direction of my life. God damn middle school bullies about jeans. They are the wrong color then the wrong brand then the wrong tag color then the wrong size on the bottom then the wrong cut. It was rough. Actually really hurtful. Now I wear cargo pants and shorts exclusively and I’m very happy. People rib me about those pants too once and a while but I have a 30 years of trauma built up to respond maturely and reasonably and never with a “fuck you, idiot” 🙄haha
L31121@reddit (OP)
Cargo’s and cargo shorts have been my go to for the last 25 years or so
L31121@reddit (OP)
That conjured up similar memories for me. Grades 5 to 8 seemed particularly brutal for some.
-Disagreeable-@reddit
For me it was 7 and 8 because we have junior high here with is grades 7,8 and 9. I gave up and transformed at the end of grade 8
Grundle95@reddit
I forget exactly when and how it started but I know we were all doing it (at least the guys, anyway) by 6th grade, it was critically important for a year or two, and then I don’t think I ever saw anyone do it again. Pretty sure I could still do it perfectly if I had to though, just going off muscle memory.
InternalComb1688@reddit
Yes! I rocked those Z Cavaricci‘s too 😎
RolandMT32@reddit
I was never really into jeans; I tended to wear khakis.
oflimiteduse@reddit
Cut off at the bottom with seam torn a few inches and safety pinned
JettandTheo@reddit
No, everyone wore loose fitting jeans. Then we had uniforms that said no jeans
Tony_Tanna78@reddit
I never got jean-shamed in school. I wore regular jeans that were mostly clean, usually Levi's. I don't remember anyone getting jean-shamed at school unless they were dirty.
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
No, I missed that trend by about 2 years. My sibling showed me how to do a proper tuck and roll but by the time I was in school nobody cared.
Unfortunate-Incident@reddit
No, just for wearing Levis and not Guess.
civiltribe@reddit
I was Jean shamed because I had a growth spurt and none of my pants fit me and baggy pants were cool so even though I probably didn't have clothes that fit to save money during tight times, I had to get expensive jncos and have my mom hem them for me. then I finally felt cool even though it wasn't me either.
mayonnaisejane@reddit
I was never jeans shamed.
I was too busy getting laughed at for wearing giant earth tone/muted blue Arizona Jeans Company Sweaters and 0 makeup.
"Does your mom still dress you?"
teriKatty@reddit
No never heard of this. I’m short though I had to roll my jeans for convenience and practicality not for fashion.
Shortbus_Playboy@reddit
In like, 5th or 6th grade, for sure.
Looking back, that was probably my first actual experience with peer pressure/shaming; I can’t remember anyone caring about “cool fashion” before that.
PineappleJLM@reddit
God yes. I was the new kid in 6th grade who had just moved to the US and had never seen tight rolled jeans before. Luckily I was corned in the cafeteria on my first day and told what a huge loser I was for not having my jeans pegged.
MuffinMatrix@reddit
For awhile I hated jeans. So I wore other types of pants, like the patterned ones that looked kinda like sweatpants but were thinner regular pants material.
I got made fun of a bunch. There was this running joke how I wore the same clothes. Which was so weird to me considering they where patterned, and I had different ones every day. But also how everyone else.... wore jeans. Blue jeans. Every day.
nounthennumbers@reddit
I got shamed for jeans that weren’t the current trendy name brand.
jackfaire@reddit
Only time I got mocked was when a friend wrote on my jeans and suddenly the "You can wear jeans multiple days in a row" crowd thought it was gross.
PhysicsStock2247@reddit
In like 5th grade, yea. Then when I tried to cuff them like that in middle school I was teased for still doing it. Also tried rocking purposefully ripped jeans at the knee and got made fun of for being too poor to afford pants without holes in them. So then I asked for a pair of styling royal blue jeans for Christmas from J & W and was called a “wigger”. Just couldn’t win the fashion battle in junior high.
enphurgen@reddit
I got shamed for not wearing jeans, sweatpants all day baby!
bladegmn@reddit
No, I was only made fun of when my mom would convert my jeans into shorts for the summer after I wore out the knees.
NemeanMiniLion@reddit
No, rolling your jeans was accepted but not considered a good thing. It meant you couldn't hem your pants. Not something to be too embarrassed about and not something making a style statement. We just didn't shame the people who rolled em. I rolled them sometimes.
Seven22am@reddit
No but somebody made fun of me once because my jeans had a crease in them because my mom ironed them. 🤷🏼♂️
LameSaucePanda@reddit
I was a strong holdout until the end. We had a friend who stopped rolling hers in 6th grade (so like 1991), and we were like EWWW what are you DOING?! But she seriously never cared.