Pants Ban Gets the Bum's Rush

A proposal to impose a $50 fine on people who expose their boxers, briefs or thongs in public has been thrown out of the senate in the US state of Virginia, two days after a congressman launched a campaign against the hip-hop trend of wearing baggy trousers that put such undergarments in view.

Democratic legislator Algie T Howell put proposals before the state's house of representatives earlier this week that would have made it illegal to wear trousers which left underwear visible in "a lewd or indecent manner", but a senate committee decided unanimously to reject the idea.

Republican senator Thomas K Norment said news reports implied that lawmakers had nothing better to do than worry about baggy trousers.

"I find that an indignation, which dampens my humour," he said.

Teenagers in Virginia failed to understand the proposals which, they told the Washington Post, were behind the times anyway.

"Nobody does it these days," said Abbas Kandeh, 19, a high school senior from Alexandria, Virginia who wore baggy jeans that didn't hang nearly as low as they might have done four years ago.

Virginia senators said they had rejected the bill at the first opportunity in large part in reponse to the international attention the proposals had received. Mr Howell's office received phone calls from the media as far away as Israel and Australia.

"I would find this bill humorous or tolerable ... but for the indignity of the, no pun intended, international exposure," Senator Norment said.

Jessica Miller, 18, agreed. "Everyone thinks it's a joke," she told the Washington Post. "They're using words like 'lewd'. War is lewd. Homelessness is indecent. Boxers showing, that's tacky. It's not worth spending taxpayers' money on."

Mr Howell made no immediate comment on the fall of his proposals, which he said he put forward on behalf of constituents, including customers at his barber shop, who were offended by exposed underwear.