BARRINGTON – The yoga pants parade on Sunday, Oct. 23, was never really about yoga pants. It was about women being able to wear what they want to wear, without men telling them what to do, what to think, and how to dress, according to a number of participants who attended the hour-long stroll.

The parade drew hundreds on a spectacular fall weekend afternoon, including children, adults, men and women, dogs, toddlers in strollers – and a bevy of reporters.

It was the kind of event that defied traditional media analysis: there was no mayhem, only a lot of friendly smiles. It began with a simple request: everyone was to turn to the person standing next to them, and declare, “You’re awesome.”

Everywhere, there were eye-catching signs.

One read: “My mom wears combat boots and yoga pants”; it was being held up by the two young daughters of Claire Costa, Fiona and Maya. Indeed. Claire was wearing both combat boots and yoga pants.

Her participation in the demonstration, Claire said, was very much a response to the toxic political dialogue in the Presidential campaign around women.

Another mother, Christine Sullivan, and her two daughters, Abby and Victoria, were also marching.

Victoria came dressed up as a version of Rosie the Riveter, the iconic image from World War II when women were part of the industrial workforce.

“Rosie the Riveter is a symbol of feminism and women’s rights,” Victoria explained. “She has always been a symbol of empowerment, the right to wear whatever we want. I decided that Rosie was a good person to say, ‘We can wear it.’”

An engaged community
The decision to hold a yoga pants parade was the result of anger and disgust in response to a letter to the editor printed in the local Barrington Times, the weekly community newspaper, in which the writer complained that no women over 20 should be allowed to wear yoga pants in public.

The idea for a parade to march in front of the writer’s home, with women wearing yoga pants, went viral on Facebook – and it soon also went viral on the Internet as well.

The organizers quickly made the march one that emphasized the peaceful right of assembly, and asked participants to bring with them supplies to donate to Sojourner House, a domestic violence shelter, resulting in a veritable small mountain of donations.

Victoria and her family had learned about the yoga pants parade on Facebook.

“We didn’t know who organized it; we learned about it from friends of friends on Facebook,” she explained. It was very much a social media gathering.

“I think the story has gone viral,” Victoria continued, “because of the audacity this man had to disrespect such a large group of women. Women are changing in our ability in our lives to say, we’re taking control of it.”

At 21 years of age, she continued, “It means that I’m one year older than [the age limit] that he says women should be allowed to wear yoga pants.”

Shared space
Many who lived around the route were out on their front lawns, greeting the marchers. One sign read: “Welcome yoga pants.”

ConvergenceRI bumped into any number of friends, colleagues and acquaintances, including a former landlord, numerous reporters and photographers, and even subscribers to ConvergenceRI.

Halfway through the parade, ConvergenceRI heard his name being called out by one of the bystanders, an old friend, who in turn, was being interviewed by a reporter from The Boston Globe. Normally, because she was the reporter on call for breaking news, she covered murders, fires and accidents. This story was such a blessing to cover, she said.

Toward the end of the parade, ConvergenceRI found himself walking on the sidewalk along New Meadow Road next to a reporter from ABC6, who was capturing a young woman carrying a sign which read: “Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.”

A day in the life
No doubt, the man who wrote the letter to editor to the local community newspaper never imagined that it would spark such a strong reaction. Neither the editor of the local newspaper anticipated that his decision to publish the letter would create such blowback.

For ConvergenceRI, the moral of the story was the way in which an engaged community responded, in a spontaneous, serendipitous manner, to give public voice in response to what was perceived as an unacceptable attempt to control the way that women should dress in public.