When I was a child, women wore rain mates - see-through folded pieces of plastic, tied with ribbon under your chin. They protected the beehive architecture of the hair. I wanted one; the symbol of being an adult woman.
A while back I found one in a department store and bought it for a friend.
She threatened to wear it. Her children were horrified. They said it was inappropriate, disgraceful, disrespectful to them and was evidence of poor mental health. At least that was the tenor of what they said - the words were a little more explicit.
The rain mate and the hoodie are not a problem in themselves, but, apart from their usefulness in inclement weather, they are symbolic of identity, of belonging to a group.
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