Primary school kids wearing "shag bands"
Each colour represents a sexual act
Wearer must perform act if band breaks
THEY look like a symbol of childhood innocence. But these colourful bracelets are behind an "insidious" craze of primary school kids performing sex acts that it is feared will soon sweep through Queensland.
Rather than a mere fashion statement, the so-called "shag bands" are linked to gradations of sexual behaviour. A Facebook page about the innocuous-looking bands has already been inundated with more than 12,000 fans.
The game involves a boy or girl trying to break the rubber band off the wearer's wrist. If it snaps, the wearer has to perform the favour corresponding to the colour.
Snap an orange band and get a kiss, snap a yellow and get a hug. But snap a black, light blue or light green band, and the "prize" is something far more sinister.
A gold-coloured bracelet opens the way to all the favours.
Parent and family groups are horrified by what is represented by the bracelets, which can be bought at Diva chain stores.
Herald Sun, 3 Jul 2009
When primary-school-aged girls on Facebook's shag band fan page were asked "what colour would you snap", replies included: "yellow, because I like hugz", and "light pink because only a kiss".
But the innocent comments were interspersed with other answers, such as, "black coz u get to shag someone". UrbanDictionary.com defines the rubber wrist bands as "jelly bracelets" and lists the entire repertoire of sexual favours.
Social commentator Melinda Tankard-Reist, who has has just edited Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, said the so-called shag bands set young girls up for "sexual consumption".
"It's just setting up girls as service stations for boys," she said. "This is another example of young women expected to be publicly sexual, to advertise their sexual repertoire.
"It's insidious . . . it's damaging to girls and their worth."
Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive Joe Tucci said that early sexualisation was worrying.
"All this is selling the idea of sexualisation is a way to negotiate relationships," Dr Tucci said.
"What's happened to just playing?"
Dr Tucci said if parents saw their children wearing the bands it was an opportunity to talk about tricky subjects such as sexuality.
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