The baseball cap is one of the major reasons that hats haven never completed disappeared from society. They became a trend in the 1990's, and with the playing field becoming more level for women in society, the role of the baseball cap being for men only became obsoelte, there by just about doubling the market for it. As societyy moves forward and changes, so does the role and symbolism of hats.
Previous to the trend that it was cool to wear baseball caps backwards, wearing a baseball cap backwards was symbolic of a catcher. It was a matter of function over form for the catcher. The catcher had to wear his cap this way so he could wear his mask. With the cap being a part of the uniform, another symbol of the game, not wearing the cap was not an option.
In a vignette that I wrote and produced at the Philly fringe Festival in the 1990's, I explored the this symbolism. Say a catcher from the 1920's came back in the 1990s and saw someone who obviously was not a catcher wearing their cap backwards to be cool. What would that conversation be like? That was what this vignette in the fringe festival explored.
Society changes, and so does the role of hats in. While I find wearing a baseball cap sideways or backwards to be silly, I'm glad that people do it. Hat's stay relevant, and in the end that's what's important.
Comments