If you read a lot, you’ll undoubtedly come across sentences with which you disagree and even some that make you downright angry.

But it takes a truly outlandish idea to make you fume over an article, and a particularly needling writer to open that article with a perfectly offensive sentence.

From this week’s issue of Newsweek, I present the following: “There is nothing wrong with a man owning a pair of sweatpants, but there is something very wrong with a man wearing them in public.”

I almost don’t know where to begin disagreeing with that sentence, but I’ll try.

First, every man should own sweatpants (or something equally casual, possibly made of nylon). The writer’s problem with those pants being worn in public goes against a lot of what we should be aspiring towards as a culture.

When I’m hungry and want to go to Taco Bell, I shouldn’t feel compelled to take a shower, slather on cologne and don a three-piece Armani suit. I’m going to flipping Taco Bell. The signs on the door say “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.” My only responsibility is to fulfill the basic requirements–wearing some form of shirt and shoes.

If Taco Bell doesn’t even mention pants on their sign of basic customer clothing, why should it matter what sort of pants I am wearing? I mean, sweatpants are delightfully comfortable. Shouldn’t we live in a world where people can be comfortable?

How often do you see someone who is clearly trying too hard to impress with their dress? How often do we embrace fictional characters who eschew societal norms and succeed by “being themselves”? If you are a sweatpants person, who’s to say you should have to conform to what other people want to see in public? When you’re considering going outside, your thought should not be about dressing a certain way just so everyone else will have “nice” things to look at.

If you want to see someone dressed to the nines, do it yourself and look in the mirror. There’s no need to push your visions of fashion perfection on someone who wants to be comfortable and doesn’t feel the need to try to impress you.

During the summer months it seems perfectly acceptable for people to wear all types of shorts. So why should taking the same basic concept and adapting it for colder weather be any different? Not to mention the obvious double standard explicit in the article’s lead sentence–that men should not wear sweats in public. How would it be more acceptable for women to wear sweats? Aren’t females typically considered to be held to a higher fashion standard than men?

Then again, I welcome and encourage everyone to wear sweats–I’m all for equal-opportunity comfort. The bottom line, sweats are sweet.