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You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
09/14/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
You know, I went to high school when this rumor first started. I wore snap bracelets.

a) Nobody ever tried to snap anyone's bracelets.
b) If they had, they would have been called a dick and no sex would have taken place.

Period.
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downwithdebbie
09/14/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Meh-to me snap bracelets are those that had metal within them, straightened flat out, and you "snapped" them around your wrist. They hurt like fuck and were a menace to society, but damn were they cool. Do they still exist?
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LolaQuinn is full of beans
09/14/09

@downwithdebbie: Yes. And they still hurt like HELL.
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Skellatrix
09/14/09

@downwithdebbie: Thank YOU! I had a bright pink satin one, and one that was some kind of fluorescent patterned craziness. They made a very very brief comeback in 2000.
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aimeeg
09/14/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Ahmahgahd! They're still going on about those? Seriously, this was an issue when I was in PRIMARY school, what, 14 years ago!? Christ! We used to call them 'shag' bands, because if someone broke one you were supposedly meant to 'shag' them. Obviously, as 10 year olds we never actually entertained the idea of 'shagging' anyone, and didn't actually even know what that was! 10 year olds aren't actually going to go around giving eachother sexual favours because of a bracelet!
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gwenhwyfar
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
They were really popular when I was in junior high. Everyone knew about the snap game, but, not surprisingly, preteen girls aren't as likely to randomly give boys sexual favors as adults seem to think.
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NorthernLite
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Good grief, I'm such an Olde I thought this was something the 30 Rock writers had made up. (Drew's daughter wore 'em.)

Now where can I get some of these to wear to work so people think I have such an exciting life *now.*
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eightybaby
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
I had no idea that jelly bracelets had anything to do with secret teen sex messages... O_o
I do, however, remember that when I was in middle school (early 90's) they banned those "slap" bracelets because the metal in them was potentially deadly! That was the story, anyway. Some kids like, slashed their wrists with them on accident. What a scandal.
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sequined promoted this comment wtfox?! approved this comment eightybaby was starred eightybaby was unstarred

sequined
09/14/09

@eightybaby: My school banned slap bracelets because people hit each other with them and they were mildly disruptive.

We almost also had to ban pogs because kids were essentially gambling with them. And they were also mildly disruptive.
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Rabbitty
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Kids nowadays..

So inefficient. I just screen print that information on a t-shirt. Done.
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sequined
09/14/09

@Rabbitty: God, back in my day if you wanted the whole school to know about your sex life, you had to engage in sexual acts with everyone you wanted to know about it. Took for-fucking-ever. Just so people would know that I got around! Ugh.
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debo matar la zombi goldberry83
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Oh, lord - I was in highschool when Columbine happened, too. I'd worn a trenchcoat pretty much non-stop from the time I was 14, and all of a sudden I had other students harassing me about it being "inappropriate". None of the teachers gave me a hard time, fortunately, since most of them knew I was just a nerd, but the fact that anyone would look at me askance for something I had worn for years was just a damn pain in the ass.
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ampersandparade
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
I didn't have sex with anyone in high school, and I wore them. What in the world did my teachers think about that? I should change my name to slutparade now.
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sequined
09/14/09

@ampersandparade: It turns out that teachers (evidently) know a fair amount about students' sex lives, and it has nothign to do with sex bracelets.
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spooki
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
When I was in 9th grade (and unfortunately wearing those bracelets) a local news station ran a "shocking expose of rampant teenage perversion in the local schools".

The report was so infuriating and stupid! They had "shocking interviews" with students that consisted of girls saying "yeah, I wear them". Nobody ever wore them to show the sex acts they did.

Of course, after that the school banned ALL bracelets (temporarily at least) and my best friend and I both got grounded by parents over-reacting and taking the news as truth before even talking to us about the issue.

Seriously... do ANY kids ever actually play this stupid game? Or is this "sexy teen scandal" just so juicy that reporters and schools just can't put it away?
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meritxell: an erotic life
09/13/09

@spooki: I'm just jealous that I wasn't in on any of this RAMPANT TEENAGE PERVERSION (great band name btw)
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Katxyz
09/13/09

@spooki:

No one ever does this. Ever. It's just like lipstick parties: an urban legend to worry parents and administrators and distract them from dealing with issues like getting kids to use condoms.
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hortense
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Wasn't there something about soda pop can tabs in the 90s, too? I seem to remember that for some reason.
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slowpoke.r
09/13/09

@hortense: Yes, if you could pull the tab off without breaking the small inside ring you could give it to someone as a sort of coupon for sex. I don't know anyone who actually cashed them in, but plenty of them were exchanged as a way of expressing interest in someone in my circle.
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Altaira
09/13/09

@slowpoke.r: Just today, in the process of packing for a move, I found 2 of these on a chain. If I remember correctly, they were given to me fall of '91 by a cute goth boy on a church camping trip (which *are* hotbeds of teenage perversion). I was too shy to actually ask him if they meant anything though... I was a very ineffectual teenager.
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slowpoke.r
09/13/09

@Altaira: What weird timing, finding them today.

You know, I don't know that anyone actually knew exactly what we were doing with them, despite calling them "fuck tabs." Most teenagers are pretty ineffectual, really, and just do the things you're "supposed" to do without really understanding what it would entail to follow through.

It's nice that you got it from the cute goth boy, mine were all from not necessarily interesting or attractive sources. I wonder if I still have them somewhere...
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prettycool
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
In middle school, girls would take the plastic inside soda bottle caps, stretch them into a bracelet, then kiss whomever broke it. That's about as raunchy as bracelets went in my day.

Ironically, in freshmen year of HS, when those bracelets were deemed passé, three girls in my year got preggers.
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Edited by prettycool at 09/13/09 6:48 PM prettycool was starred prettycool was unstarred

LaFitzy
09/13/09

@prettycool: I remember those! I think I wore several... but I had no idea they had anything to do with a kissing game. Whoops.
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CynicalPink
09/13/09

@LaFitzy: Ditto. I don't remember any of the boys trying to snap them, either. The boys DID start incorporating ones they broke for themselves in to their paper wasp designs, though.

Middle Schoolers: Sometimes they'd rather think about ways they can pointlessly bruise each other instead of sex!
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hortense
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
And now, with the 90s revival, schools will get to ruin everyone's fun and ban snap bracelets all over again, too.
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Chamalla,barren crone
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
Most public school employees will tell you they would much prefer to teach comprehensive, honest sex ed over banning stupid shit like plastic bracelets. When half of the public education consumers are screaming about saying anything at all about sex and the other half are screaming about plastic bracelets, sometimes all schools can do is the least offensive (and oftentimes least effective) task of stop gaps and lip service.

Chastising and rolling eyes at school administrators for not doing something they're (usually) forbidden to do by law is a little counterproductive.
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ihateyourescalade
09/13/09

@Chamalla, now gainfully employed: Bravo.
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Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC
09/13/09

In reply to You Can Ban The Bracelets, But You Can't Ban The Issues Behind Them
You can take my bracelets, but you can't take my fellatiousness. (haha...like Mel Gibson in "Braveheart")
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