Hundreds of women took to the streets of Rhode Island this week to protest their right to wear yoga pants.
The protest was organised following the publishing of a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. The author of the letter, Alan Sorrentino, wrote that he was tired of seeing older people wearing the tight fitting garment, saying, “To all yoga pant wearers, I struggle with my own physicality as I age, I don’t want to struggle with yours.”
Sorrentino further compared older women wearing yoga pants in public to men wearing a tight fitting speedo at the grocery store. Sorrentino insists that the letter was designed to be funny, to provide a moment of levity in the current political climate. “It was in the face of all this political stuff, with all these really important issues going on, and then there’s this letter about yoga pants,” he told the Boston Globe.
It seems that many others didn’t understand Sorrentino’s sense of humour, and a group of approximately 300 women of varying ages organised a protest march outside Sorrentino’s house. Many protesters held signs bearing the words, “We wear what we want,” and, “Love yourself.”
Sorrentino has claimed to have received multiple death threats following the publishing of the letter. Police officers patrolled the lawn in front of his house as the protestors marched by, and many even stopped to take pictures. “Every little bump, every little noise,” said Sorrentino, “I lock my car, I lock my windows, I lock my house, I’ve locked myself out of my house twice.”
Sorrentino feels that such a huge reaction to his letter is “improper” and believes the protest to be “bullying.” He questioned whether or not a woman would feel comfortable with a crowd of protesters walking by her home following death threats.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart Tech, regularly writing about issues of Free Speech and online Censorship. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolan_ or email him at lucas@yiannopoulos.net