If You Snap My Bracelet I Have To #&%$ Your &%#!! — Seriously

Shag bands, each signifying a sexual act a girl is willing to perform, are taking the British primary school world by storm.

Parents are up in arms. Is this an innocent fad or a dangerous trend?

Although these bracelets have come and gone in North America (hurrah!) they have just made it across the Atlantic where they are proving very popular with elementary school children. Children as young as eight are wearing these bracelets which, when snapped, force the bracelet wearer to perform a sexual act.

Black — Sex
Blue — Blow job
Pink — Flash tits or penis
Yellow — Hug
Purple — Kiss
Clear — Whatever the snapper wants
Green — Hand job
Brown — Eat her out
Glow in the dark — Sex toys
Any glitter — Girl chooses
Silver — Outdoor sex
Light Blue — Anal
Light pink — Hug and kiss
Light green — Oral sex
Gold — All of the above

Of course, the specific meanings of the colours change from school to school but the acts are all essentially the same.

By all reports the bracelets are a bit of a salacious joke among the children and there is no real expectation that these acts will be performed. Some adults are considering it to be a more modern version of kiss chase. The Times said:

One girl writes: “They got banned in loads of places and my school got letters sent home about them and if the headmistress spots any they are confiscated. We didn’t do anything that they meant, we only liked the colours and messed around but adults went 2 far and banned them ” I spoke to one girl of 11 who laughed off the idea that any girl would act on the supposed meanings of the bands. “She might give him a hug or a kiss but anything more than that and she would just say ‘get lost’,” she says.

A clinical psychologist consulted by the paper said that these bands might cause the children to feel peel pressure to have sex earlier than they otherwise would.

“Young people don’t suspect that the person next to them may be lying and they may think, ‘Oh, I’d better move on to green’, or whatever,” she says. “It sets up a false progression of what is meant to happen and inappropriate inevitability about the sexual aspects of relationships.

“They really ought to be banned. Let’s imagine for a moment if the same system was applied to drugs — ‘Have you tried marijuana? Now try cocaine’. It is commercial exploitation of children.”

It is definitely commercial exploitation of children, but this is nothing new. Kids are forced to contend with both sex and capitalism at younger and younger ages, and they are surprisingly adept at doing so.

This isn’t going to do any lasting damage. This is simply a way for them to practice the idea of being sexual before they hit puberty. And besides, the bracelets are also apparently very difficult to snap.

(And if I had a daughter who was wearing them, they would immediately be confiscated and she would receive a two hour lecture on self respect and peer pressure).