Student 'sex bracelets' an urban legend?

[CalebHayes]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/12/10/sex.bracelet.ap/index.html

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Orange, red, blue, black -- they're just thin, rubbery bracelets that come in a rainbow of colors, but they're causing quite a stir.

First made popular by Madonna and other pop stars in the 1980s, "jelly bracelets" are making a comeback with teens and some grade-school kids. But this time, there's a twist: In some parts of the U.S., they're calling them "sex bracelets" -- with various colors supposedly representing promises to perform sex acts in a game called "Snap."

As the story goes, break someone's orange bracelet (or purple, in some cases) and you get a kiss. Red, a lap dance. Blue, oral sex. Black, intercourse. And so on.

"They've been selling like crazy," says Andy Ball, a clerk at The Alley, an edgy clothing and accessories store in Chicago. He says he learned about their secret meaning from a group of teens who came into the store about a month ago.

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I have seen them at my school. But this news story told me what they meant. And I bet I am not the only child who learned this form CNN.

[PartyPooper]

1. Does anyone else remember the good ole' days of "going steady"?

:eyes:

[SharonAnn]

2. We weren't even allowed to "go steady" in high school.

Of course some did, but it was officially forbidden. BTW, I went to a Catholic school.

[brainshrub]

15. No. But I went to HS in the early 90s.

[tsipple]

3. Um, Where Can I Get Some Black Bracelets?

And a couple blue ones, too.

Just wondering. :evilgrin:

[FDRrocks]

27. Exactly what I thought...

!

[LoZoccolo]

4. Well of course they're an urban legend.

The Alley is up the street from me and it's like...not like Hot Topic or anything. It's pretty seriously punk rawk even if it's as big as a small department store (a small small department store). Matter fact there's a Dunkin' Donuts on that corner I tell people from chat rooms to meet me at if they want to fight (they never do but I'm calling their bluff anyways).

I mean come on. I'd believe it's just some teenagers being all goofy or making something up to freak out grown ups, which is like one of the funniest things to do when you're all punk rawk.

I grew up in Michigan and hung out with all these punk rawk kids, and I remember hearing that in the punk bars in Chicago they'd smash all these bottles on the floor before they'd have slamdancing so if you fell you'd be totally f*cked. Now I'm like baaaahahahahaha I ain't never heard of that who would do that?

[veganwitch]

17. yeah the Alley is soooo not hot topic

i lurve the alley. and im such a vanilla girl (atleast in appearance) but i love it. and igor's dugeon around the corner on belmont.

i miss chicago. (and the chicago diner is just up the street on halsted).

*homesick*

[monobrau]

5. Oh fer god's sake

How is it that adults can forget all the stupid stuff we did and said as kids?

[TankLV]

6. Does that mean I have to get rid of all my different colored hankies?

and to think I used them for when my nose was running!

How do you make a hankie dance?

Put a little boogie in it!

Are the bracelets edible and sugar-free?

Are they like licorice?

Inquiring minds want to know!

PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS!

There now - THAT was intelligent discource.

Opps - fogot the magic word - "Clinton"!

[lfairban]

8. You mean hankies like these?

http://andrejkoymasky.com/lou/new/new19.html

[xchrom]

13. in the 70's

there were no velvet or lace hankies and not nearly so many categories -- my how times have changed.
i see the straight rock-a-billy crowd is all hankied out these days -- is this just a nor-cali thing? and do they have a code?

[Karenina]

14. The BIG taboo

in junior high was wearing red and black together. That meant you (shhh... did "it"). One day 2 friends came to class sporting red blouses and black skirts- I was SHOCKED... I tell you SHOCKED!!!

[LizW]

16. Is that like wearing green on Thursday?

Or was it Tuesday? Sorry, it's been a LOOOOOONGG time since high school, but it meant you were gay. I think.

Edited to add: these bracelets will be banned at my son's middle school by this afternoon, I predict. This is just the kind of thing that sets off hysteria in my community. Oh, my God!!! SEX!!! AAARRGHHHH!

[bleedingheart]

29. Oh my god I remember that green on tuesday thing

oh how funny...that was ages ago..

[alphafemale]

31. The Green on Thursday/Tuesday thing had some type of historical...

The Green on Thursday/Tuesday thing had some type of historical context I think. Something to do with the "Orange Order" and the wearing of green being banned.

Nothing to do with why we shunned it as teens though.

[Capn Sunshine]

22. I remember that!!!

Alway wore black and red on Fridays, as a statement as much as anything.

[Kinkistyle]

7. Best way to kill a fad = the parents pick it up.

First of all its stupid. Stupid. Who cares. Second of all, banning it is going to make it seem like a "forbidden fruit" and you know how tempting those things can be. The best way to kill a fad is for the parents and adults to pick up on it and start doing it themselves (like the Macarena for instance).

[LiberalFighter]

10. You mean like...

the mother tells the father to break her black bracelet in front of the daughter? Gee, would the girl be embarrassed? You think?

[Kinkistyle]

11. Its being called an urban legend.

Read the article. Most teens are saying it is just an urban legend getting circulated around. Banning it would be stupid because it would validate these legends. The opposite reaction from adults, in other words accepting that it is just "cool" fashion statement and adopting it would speed up the process of it becoming "lame".

[tinnypriv]

9. What's the "and so on"?

Sign me up for some of that!! :evilgrin:

[rooboy]

12. Hooo Boy....

the pretty young girl up at my corner store has about 6 black bracelets on each wrist!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[bushisanidiot]

18. Even If It's True, The Kids Who Would Actually "Play The Game"

are kids would do those things without a 'game' anyway. It's not like all our little virgin angels are being led astray by some sex bracelet game. Gawd.. and half the kids that are saying they do all that stuff are just saying it for the shock value, they don't actually do it.

I think we need to give our kids a little more credit instead of running off half cocked because some small group of kids somewhere are spreading some silly rumor.

[shanti]

20. you wouldn't believe

(well, maybe you would) half of the things that middle schoolers do now. i hear about them. middle schools won't let the kids do any kind of physical touching, hugging, hand holding, kissing, etc. in school, but what hey do after school would make your hair stand on end. i've heard it all as a mother of a son. it's not the boys particularly, but these some of these young girls are scandalous!

[VelmaD]

24. hang on a second

why is it scandalous what the girls will do but not for the boys that are presumably participating as well. Seems a bit like a double standard there to me.

[bushisanidiot]

25. I"m The Mother of 2 Middle Schoolers As Well

when talk about teen pregnancy comes up (or teens having sex) comes up in some way on the news or t.v. show we're watching I mention how I had a friend who got pregnant in 8th grade and how she had to drop out of school to raise her baby and never was able to go back to high school. Kids raising kids is a hard hard life.. I make sure they know that. It's so much easier to have a plan.. starting with graduating high school and going on to college. Kids can come along later, there's no rush. Although I can't wait to be a grandma (I don't tell them that though! ;)

[shanti]

19. i just asked my 13 yr old son

here in northern california. he said the kids at his school wear them, but he didn't know about any "game" involved with them. :shrug: i hope i haven't put any thoughts in his head! :scared:

[Maeve]

21. CNN is just now getting around to this silliness?

That story has been bouncing around the wires/local papers for at least a month. :eyes:

Yeah, and there are cartoons laced with LSD floating around, too...

[eileen_d]

30. Now *that* one I did fall for.

The "cartoons laced with LSD" legend, I mean. Did yours come from a guy in a mysterious blue van?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

32. No, two guys in that van, looking to abduct children

give them LSD and then rape their mothers, driving around showing guns to kids in broad daylight on busy streets, and the only people who see them are the 16-year-olds who are late getting home.

Yeah, them.

[Loonman]

23. Sounds like a media construct

Since when has the media ever had an accurate analysis of a fad, real or imagined?

[Exultant Democracy]

26. Whatever happend to drinking booze

When I was in highschool, sex and booze went together. Bracelets seem a lot less cool.

[youngred]

28. Please

That's pure shite. I'm past HS, but not that much