Bill To Ban Yoga Pants Was Just A Joke?

Republican state representative Dave Moore of Montana has proposed a bill making it illegal to wear yoga pants, and the bill was defeated in the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee. Some committee members laughed at the idea, Channel 7 ABC News of New York City reported two days ago. Moore reacted to an annual “Bare as you Dare” bicycle event in Missoula, Montana. But in committee hearings for his bill to ban yoga pants, he singled out “yoga pants” in addition to the type cyclists often wear in his effort to ban them.

Moore’s legislation to ban yoga pants would have added to the state’s law on indecent exposure several forms of clothing considered to cause indecent exposure to a “person’s buttocks, genitals, pelvis or female nipple,” ABC News reported.

“A Republican Montana lawmaker now insists that his proposal to ban yoga pants is just one giant joke,” Mediaite reported earlier today. Mediaite also reported that Moore claimed that “At no time during the hearing was yoga pants brought up. The whole (thing) was a off-the-cuff remark in the hallway, and the whole thing just exploded.”

But many news outlets insist Moore was serious about the effort to legislatively ban yoga pants and only claims it was joke after his colleagues laughed it out of the Judiciary Committee. The Billings Gazette had cited Moore suggesting that beige skin-colored yoga pants should be subject to ban.

“Earlier this week, the internet had a good chuckle over Montana State Representative David Moore’s supposed desire to ban yoga pants. (“Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway,” he told a reporter.) Now, The Guardian reports that Moore might have been kidding, New York magazine reported.

Legislator Dave Moore is perhaps unlikely to bring the idea back any time too soon, especially after saying his move to ban yoga pants was just a joke. Maybe some reporters should have questioned whether Moore sought advice from his wife on whether or not to ban yoga pants.

“Either way, the combination of the Moore kerfuffle and Montana’s December debate over whether leggings are pants suggests that this particular state legislature should take a break from fashion policing, New York magazine stated.

Wikipedia defines the garment that was subject to the proposed ban.

“Yoga pants are a type of flexible, form-fitting pants designed for the practice of yoga as well as other physical activities that involve a lot of movement, bending and stretching. Some of the other activities include: martial arts, dancing, pilates, aerobics, clubbing, etc. These pants are generally made of cotton, spandex, nylon, polyester or a similarly light and stretchy synthetic material giving the pants a very smooth and silk-like finish when worn. There are many different colors but the most common type are black, tight-fitted, and have an elastic waistband folded over at the top. Although designed specifically for yoga, the pants are also worn casually by many women.”

“A Montana state representative knows just what the people of Montana need: a ban on Yoga pants!” the Inquisitr reported a few days ago.

“The proposed bill, HB365, would make public nudity a crime in Montana. It would also make ‘provocative clothing’ that leaves little to the imagination, such as yoga pants, illegal, according to The Washington Times,” the Inquisitr reported.

While Dave Moore of the Montana state legislature sought to be ban yoga pants and then appeared to have said it was a joke, he finds himself being the butt of the joke for many. There are no reports yet of any clothing rights activists having created a movement to defend their rights to wear yoga pants.

[Image of yoga pants from www.hercampus.com]