Shag Bands - Is it occuring in Ireland?

chele

I read this in a paper and I am absolutely horrified. I just wonder to what extent this is going on in Ireland. I think parents ought to know, its very concerning.

Basically I read that illuminous coloured bands are being worn by kids as young as 7 in schools and that each bracelet colour symbolises what sexual act they are prepared to perform. Parents are completely unaware that each piece of cheap jewellery represents a differeny sex act. This secret code corresponds to colours and when a boy snaps the bracelet off their arm, the girl has to do what the band symbolises.

According to the code used in Birtish Isles,


Yellow- Hug
Pink- Flash
Blue- oral sex
Black symbolises - going the whole way
Gold means doing all of the above

This is horrendous and worst of all its kids as young as 11 and 12 who are driving it. There is pressure placed on young girls to show what they are willing to do and many girls do not want to be seen as not willing to do these acts, so they buy the bangles.

I can't imagine it happening here, but then again I am constantly amazed what is seen to be acceptable in Irish society these days

I think parents should be wary to this, as the bracelets look like harmless accessories... never in my life would I have thought when I wore those highlighter coloured plastic bangles as a 90's teenager that they had a new and twisted meaning!

3DataModem

This is largely an urban myth, and has been passed around as a rumor for the past several years.

Nerin

Urban myth and scare mongering, which,ironically, will probably give them ideas.

chele

I hope its an urban myth, it would be horrible to think that kids are acutally buying these bands as symbols of their sexual intentions.
They are way too young to know what they are letting themselves into.

I always thought rainbow parties were urban myths too, but apparently not!
Scary!!!

Nerin

chele wrote: »

I always thought rainbow parties were urban myths too, but apparently not!
Scary!!!

Rainbow parties? Any sources / links?

Moonbeam

http://www.snopes.com/risque/school/bracelet.asp

stovelid

I wear my own media band.

It confers protection from idiotic sensationalist news articles and twitches violently if I come within two feet of a copy of most of the rags sold in this country.

Nevyn

Those plastice rubber stings which are crafted into braceletts are all the rage atm,
for some werid reason they are called 'scoobies', there was a kit of them bought in smyths and we managed to make a few and to use some of the craft beads she has floating around all over the sodding house.

They are an arts and crafts fashion acessorty and thats it.

I find the idea that is it some sort of child hanky code to be daft.

January

Thaedydal wrote: »

Those plastice rubber stings which are crafted into braceletts are all the rage atm,
for some werid reason they are called 'scoobies', there was a kit of them bought in smyths and we managed to make a few and to use some of the craft beads she has floating around all over the sodding house.

They are an arts and crafts fashion acessorty and thats it.

I find the idea that is it some sort of child hanky code to be daft.

My sister taught me how to make those years ago... are they back now??

Nevyn

They are back and with enough of a bang they have been banned from the school.

Oh and the paper that covered this was the daily mail, also know as the daily fail.

miss no stars

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/9/14/1252937408156/shag-bands-001.jpg

they are shag bands


they've been around a long, long time here. It's nothing new. Kids joke about with them. They're (mostly) not serious about it. It's just something for girls to giggle about (or at least it was when the boys in my primary class were all snapping the black bands of the girls...)


Storm. Teacup. In.

Answers on a postcard please.

Sukie_asleep

We used to wear them in primary school in about 6th class (10 years ago) and we called them shag bracelets and they denoted various sexual acts... I remember black meant going all the way. Nobody actually did anything though, I wouldn't worry.

Noffles

To the OP, why can't you imagine this happening in Ireland???

Please elaborate I'm dying to hear what justifies it..

Toots

When I was in 6th class (1998 or thereabouts), we all wore them and called them shag bracelets. We all knew what the colours supposedly meant, but I'd be fairly certain in saying that the colours worn by the girls in the class were in no way representative of their sexual experience, or what they were prepared to do. I think when I finished primary school, only one girl it the class had actually kissed a boy properly.

Nothing to worry about I'd say.

sillineysarah

Hey everyone,

So my 11 year old daughter asked could we go to Dundrum today for a bit... she had €20 burning a hole in her pocket!

On route there in the car I ask her what she's going to buy... the reply... Shag Bands!

Now, I've heard of these bands cropping up in Wesley disco and couldn't believe that the sexualisation of young girls has come to this. My daughter tells me that 3rd class up are wearing them.

For those who don't know, shag bands are coloured rubber bands worn on the wrist and supposedly if someone snaps one you have to perform the act which it represents... ranging from hug to hickey. But I've heard they also can imply any act from oral sex to full intercourse!!!

OBVIOUSLY for my 11 year old and the primary school kids they dont have a clue what the representation of these bands REALLY are. She knew the idea behind them and they represent hug and kiss but it's not even the act that pisses me off about these idiotic bands its the entire implications behind them. The fact that these bands are widely known about and the thought of little girls walking around putting out to the world this impression is just so disgusting to me.

I am just raging at the way young girls are portraying themselves now and the pressure they seem to be under to conform to this whole new early sexualisation.
For example "sexting" (taking pictures of yourself nude and texting them)... there are girls as young as 12/13 doing this, I guarantee no young boy is going to do it.. WHY is that the way? Why do the girls feel the need to put themselves out there in this light in order to gain boys attention?

I could go on and on... I'm just pissed off that we've allowed it to get this bad. I wonder is it more prevalent in Ireland and how could it have changed so much in such a time... I'm 30 so it's not that long since I was there myself!

Any thoughts??

LegacyUser

It's terrifying frankly that this is the world we are bringing our kids into today. I don't even want to think about how I'll feel when my daughter is a teenager. Sex is everywhere nowadays. Teenage kids are at it on Home and Away, it's spoken about on the radio, newspapers, mags, music videos, Mylie Cyrus pole dancing, and so on.

I think the career orientated, money obsessed professionals of Celtic Tiger Ireland neglected a lot of their duties as parents over the last 15 or so years. Kids have been running riot because their parents are too focused on careers and making money. It's my hunch that the next generation of parents have identified the damage this has caused to today's young teenagers and we will be a lot more cautious with giving our kids the freedom to go to their teenage discos, and socialising late into the night in their early teens.

Ultimately, kids will copy what they see around them, first and foremost from their parents, and secondly from their peers and the media. As parents, we must set the right example and try our best to encourage our kids to recognise moral values. Hopefully, the rest of society will follow but I'm not holding my breath.

iguana

sillineysarah wrote: »

OBVIOUSLY for my 11 year old and the primary school kids they dont have a clue what the representation of these bands REALLY are.

Umm no, I think that it's you who don't know what they really are. They really are elastic bracelets that kids like to wear, your 11 year old has it right. I wouldn't get too worried about it.

Nevyn

What I find amusing is that those rings/braclets were oringally designed as freedom rings.

http://www.swade.net/gallery/symbols.html

Freedom Rings, designed by David Spada with the Rainbow Flag in mind, are six colored aluminum rings. They have come to symbolize independence and tolerance of others.
Freedom rings are frequently worn as necklaces, bracelets, rings, and key chains.
Recently, Freedom Triangles have emerged as a popular alternative to the rings, though the meaning remains the same.

When/why they started being used instead of the hanky code I don't know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanky_code

Handkerchief code or hanky code (also known as bandana code and flagging) is a way of indicating, usually among gay male casual sex-seekers or BDSM practitioners in the leather subculture in the United States, Canada and Europe, whether they are a top or bottom, and what kind of sex they are seeking, by wearing cotton color-coded handkerchiefs (bandanas), usually in the back pocket or around the belt loop. Hanky code was widely used in the 1970s as a gay code, however nowadays it is also used by many bisexual, pansexual, and queer people.[1]

Chuchoter

I can't believe you're all being so hysterical. These things aren't real. I'm in 5th year and though I know of them, I've never in my life seen anyone wearing them. And to be honest if you think bracelets will be the downfall of your innocent little girls in 1st and 2nd year (YES 1st and 2nd year, I know several girls who lost their virginity at that age) you've your head in the clouds. Slutty girls are slutty, bracelets and rainbow parties, existant or non-existant aren't going to change that.

smelltheglove

My 7 yr old wears them but the kids call them jelly bands.

My 13 year old brother wears them and was able to tell me what every colour meant. Around where I work there are a fair few teenagers wearing them, one of the young lads was chatting to me a couple of weeks ago and told me what they meant as I was saying my little one wanted some black ones. He gave me a few for her and then told me what they were supposed to mean.

Back in the day, (ha 10 yrs ago) the black ones were the thing but they were just rubber bands, nothing special about them.

Noffles

societyproblem wrote: »

It's terrifying frankly that this is the world we are bringing our kids into today. I don't even want to think about how I'll feel when my daughter is a teenager. Sex is everywhere nowadays. Teenage kids are at it on Home and Away, it's spoken about on the radio, newspapers, mags, music videos, Mylie Cyrus pole dancing, and so on.

I think the career orientated, money obsessed professionals of Celtic Tiger Ireland neglected a lot of their duties as parents over the last 15 or so years. Kids have been running riot because their parents are too focused on careers and making money. It's my hunch that the next generation of parents have identified the damage this has caused to today's young teenagers and we will be a lot more cautious with giving our kids the freedom to go to their teenage discos, and socialising late into the night in their early teens.

Ultimately, kids will copy what they see around them, first and foremost from their parents, and secondly from their peers and the media. As parents, we must set the right example and try our best to encourage our kids to recognise moral values. Hopefully, the rest of society will follow but I'm not holding my breath.

"Won't someone please think of the children..." Christ sake, Victorian Values!!

Dudess

I don't think it's "Victorian" to ask whether sex is being injected into kids'/adolescents' popular culture (I don't know whether it is or not - I do know I loved Madonna between the ages of seven and 11, when she was at her raunchiest, and I didn't particularly notice; then again she wasn't targetting little girls as her audience) but I do think it's certainly inadvisable to pay too much attention to media-fuelled speculation.

ash23

I think I'd be more worried about kids being so stupid as to think they have to perform a sex act for a random member of the opposite sex, simply because s/he managed to get a coloured bracelet off their wrist.

I would hope that it's a trend and that while they may know what it's *supposed* to represent, none are actually gullible enough to actually do it.

If you're genuinely worried your teen will give a guy oral sex because he managed to snap a band off her wrist, then I would think that the problem runs deeper than her wearing a faddy bracelet.

CrazyRabbit

You wouldn't believe the things that I got up to when I was 10-14, and we didn't have any of these 'shag bands'. Kids that age have always experimented...from a quick kiss to, well, eh, less innocent endeavours. I don't think these 'shag bands', or a lack of them, will have much of an impact on that.

Again, people are trying to blame inanimate objects for failures in other places. All that is needed is proper age-appropriate sex education and a strong parental-child relationship that allows open discussion about sexuality and peer pressure.

stovelid

So by my reasoning, if we ban these things, we also stop underage sex?

Get to it, minister!

muffy

I work in an accessories shop and am asked at least once a day by a parent and/or kid of either gender "do you have shag bands?" The store doesn't sell them...I find it weird that a parent would seek to purchase these for a primary school kid given the implications they have assumed.

LegacyUser

I became aware ofthese bands the other day when we received a letter from my 8yr old sons school saying they had been banned. I asked my son what they were and I was outraged by his reply. Hopefully other schools will follow suit.

EraseAndRewind

my daughter is 9 and her and all her friends wear these

and no they are not all swopping them for sexual favours they are swopping them because they like them and they are collecting the different coloured ones

sometimes we as parents need to take a step back and realise that despite what some newpapers would hav you believe,our children are not all on the cusp of becoming raging sex maniacs

parsi

I passed a shop today (discount shop near Burger King) and they had a notice saying "Shag bands now available". Now I know...

Deliverance

My 5yr old asked for these 'bands' today because they are popular in school. We got a packet of 50 or so for a couple of euro. They are colourful and simple and had no meaning to her other than being popular. After a minute or two I realised that these were the infamous bracelets!

During a coffee sitdown, I whispered the meanings of the bracelet colours to my partner with a bit of concern (that I heard from this thread). She could not believe it and was a little shocked!!

Later on, on a family visit with my partners 80yr old mom, my partner passed me 1 black and 1 blue band from the packet;)

smelltheglove

The anger about shag bands, in my opinion, is ridiculous. I spoke to someone last night who was actually enraged by the fact that parents let 5 yr olds wear these. Honestly it made me think, come on, they are bracelets, get over it.