New Brunswick Schools Ban Sex Bracelets

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-05-21 01:21pm

CBC wrote:MONCTON - Two New Brunswick schools that are fighting a fashion fad said to signal sexual availability could be creating a bigger problem simply by their strong reaction to it, a pop culture expert says.

School officials in the Moncton area are worried about students wearing the cheap, jelly bracelets – colourful, rubbery bangles – which some adults think carry connotations of wild teen sex.

Jennifer Brayton, a sociology professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, says the "sex bracelets" story may be more urban legend than reality, and the school reaction just lends it more credence.

"The schools banning them is giving it even more legitimacy. Because it's coming from a position of authority, it gives it more validity than maybe kids would necessarily give it if the schools weren't up in arms about it," said Brayton.

When elementary students began wearing them to Soleil Levant school in Richibucto, N.B., the school's administration sent letters home to parents explaining their meaning.

In Moncton, the principal of Beaverbrook Elementary School has outright banned the bracelets from classrooms.

Pop stars wearing the bracelets

The bracelets can be bought at almost any dollar store or teen boutique. Madonna first made them popular in the 1980s. These days they've made a comeback after being spotted on the wrists of pop icons Avril Lavigne and Pink.

The controversy over the colourful baubles began last year, when Time magazine reported that the bracelets were undercover sex toys.

A three-paragraph Time story quoted one source, a 15-year-old girl from Los Angeles, who claimed the bracelets carried a colour-coded secret.

The different colors a person displays supposedly represent different sexual acts the wearer has done, or is willing to do.

If a boy snapped a bracelet off a girl's wrist, depending on the bracelet's colour, she owed him a sexual favour.

A number of American newspapers and television stations picked up on the Time story, and soon school principals were banning the bracelets in several states.

Brayton says the perception of kids being sexualized at such a young age is ultimately the heart of the problem. "Regardless of what kids are actually doing with the bracelets, it's the perception of what's being done with them that's obviously concerning the parents," she said.

Sandra Byers, who teaches sexual behaviour at the University of New Brunswick, says there's only one way for parents to avoid unpleasant shocks about their child's sexual conduct – by discussing sexual issues openly at home.

Personally I think that these are just an urban legend. But if parents and schools would educate children properly about sex then these things may not happen. This reminds me of my high school, where there was no sex ed and condom machines where forbidden in the bathrooms because our principal was a christian fundie.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-05-21 01:22pm

Ahh crap, can a mod please fix the quote's. Thanks in advance.

muse · Post by **muse** » 2004-05-21 02:07pm

I'm quite sure it's just urban legend and gossip amongst teens. When I was in school it was something about what kind of rings we wore on which finger and how that supposedly had something to do with our sexlives. Jesus, it's just a bunch of misguided teens gossiping & spreading half-baked rumors or something a friend of an older sibling heard or supposedly said.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-05-21 03:26pm

There was a mild stir here. It's a complete urban legend. Sadly. I should know.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-05-21 04:17pm

It would be amusingly ironic if this caused kids to use the bracelets for exactly that purpose.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-05-21 04:27pm

The whole thing about the snapping bracelets really doesn't make any sense. Besides, I doubt that anyone who would go through with that in the first place would stop having sex if the bracelets were banned.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-05-21 04:45pm

Patently rediculous. Principles being dipshits once again. Color me unsurprised.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-05-21 05:17pm

Yup, I can tell you how much, as a teen, I needed this bracelets to find fuckbuddies. Damn, I don't what I'd do without them...oh wait, we don't have them...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-05-21 05:40pm

It's New Brunswick, what do you expect? Isn't their economy still based on fish?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-05-21 05:41pm

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-05-21 06:02pm

Darth Wong wrote:It's New Brunswick, what do you expect? Isn't their economy still based on fish?

I think that lobster fishing is still a major part of their economy.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-05-22 12:13am

HemlockGrey wrote:There was a mild stir here. It's a complete urban legend. Sadly. I should know.

You should know about some other shit in your town too...

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2004-05-22 12:34am

Sounds like an urban legend when I was in high school

If a you get a girls pop can tab, you were supposed to be able to sleep with her within the next month.

Trust me, didn't work

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-05-22 06:07am

If this rumour is true, then one of my former classmates must have been very, very horny when she was 14...

snopes.com page on this urban legend.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-05-22 06:07am

GAH!! Will a mod please fix that URL tag?

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

New Brunswick Schools Ban Sex Bracelets

New Brunswick Schools Ban Sex Bracelets

Lobsters