Letter to the editor blasting women wearing yoga pants sparks protest in Rhode Island

The message was loud and clear: Namaste away from our yoga pants.

After Rhode Island's Barrington Times published a letter last week from a man named Alan Sorrentino, in which he railed against the audacity of women over the age of 20 wearing yoga pants, a group of women decided to hold a march protesting men telling women what to wear. Organizers said it wasn't about Sorrentino (who "very impolitely declined" their invitation to attend), but rather the bigger issue of misogyny. They also turned it into a drive for personal hygiene items, which were donated to a nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence.

In his letter, Sorrentino said the "absolute worst thing" to ever happen to women's fashion "is the recent development of yoga pants as daily wear outside the yoga studio." Sorrentino went on to say that "like the mini-skirt, yoga pants can be adorable on children and young women who have the benefit of nature's blessing of youth. However, on mature, adult women there is something bizarre and disturbing about the appearance they make in public. Maybe it's the unforgiving perspective they provide, inappropriate for general consumption... or the spector [sic] of someone coping poorly with their weight or advancing age that makes yoga pants so weird in public." Sorrentino, who didn't reveal if he wears slimming and age-appropriate three-piece suits everywhere he goes, suggested that any woman over the age of 20 instead wear "a nice pair of tailored slacks, jeans, or anything else."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Before the protest, Sorrentino told WPRO-AM that he wrote the letter as a way to make people laugh during the election, but has instead received "vicious and intimidating" death threats, which he found "disgusting."