【artful eroticism】

It is artful eroticismtime for yoga pants -- tight, comfortable, sometimes very colorful yoga pants -- to get the respect they deserve.

Rhode Island resident Alan Sorrentino recently sent a letter to The Barrington Timesclaiming that women shouldn't wear yoga pants. Many local women were offended by the letter, so they did what any woman would do in that situation: they organized a yoga pants parade.

On Sunday, more than 300 people braved the fall air and hit the cold, hard streets of Barrington, Rhode Island, wearing yoga pants of every size, shape and color. People marched proudly in the yoga pants of their choice.

Huge crowd at the yoga pants parade in Barrington. About to hit the road. pic.twitter.com/NhRLixlpZQ

— Kyle J. Silva (@Kyle_J_Silva) October 23, 2016

The original letter appeared to have touched more than a few nerves.

"Not since the mini-skirt has there been something worn by so many women who should never have it on in the first place," Sorrentino wrote in The Barrington Times. "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."

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Sorrentino warned yoga pants may be part of a slippery slope in fashion.

"What's next? Wearing a 'Speedo' to the supermarket? Imagine if men did that. Yuck! To all yoga pant wearers, I struggle with my own physicality as I age. I don't want to struggle with yours,” he wrote.

On Saturday, however, Sorrentino told WPRO-AM that the entire letter was meant to be a joke and a respite from the election. Sorrentino says that, since publishing a letter, he's received threatening emails and voicemails.

"It’s vicious and intimidating,” Sorrentino told the station. “The fact that this is seen as an appropriate reaction to something I wrote in the paper is really disgusting."

From threats to outright intimidation, none of this is in the spirit of yoga pants.

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