It is, as my sister put, the epitome of #BarringtonProblems. In Barrington, Rhode Island, a ritzy suburb of Providence, a letter to the editor chastising women who wear yoga pants has spurred mass protests.
It all began last week when a Barrington resident penned a letter in the local paper lambasting the popular form of casual wear:
Given that the Barrington Times has a circulation of around 5,000, the letter-writer could safely have assumed that his missive would have remained obscure. But in the era of viral media, not so.
The Internet likes nothing more than an outrage-fest, and the letter was quickly picked up as an example of misogyny of the most retrograde kind. The outrage quickly migrated into actual meat-space: On Sunday, 300 yoga-pants wearers paraded through town, and by the letter-writer’s house. He has also reportedly been on the receiving end of death threats.
The whole kerfuffle demonstrates that boredom is an under-appreciated force behind social movements. (As a colleague of mine has pointed out, Stendahl was acutely aware of this.) With few real problems, and little political risk in their lives, a buffoon’s letter to the editor was enough to spur righteous indignation—one of the best feelings there is. (There’s a case to be made that boredom explains a lot of Donald Trump’s political appeal as well.)
Hopefully, with the spirit of protest afire in them, the yoga-pants marchers will now turn their attention to a real outrage: A dry town until 2012, Barrington still has only two liquor stores, in a tightly regulated market. Time to demand not only yoga pants, but cheaper liquor licenses!
