A fashion accessory may have a lot more meaning than you realize for your teenager: Jelly bracelets are making a comeback.
But instead of a fashion statement, they may be making a statement about your kid's sex life.
[Blah, Blah, Blah]
These bendable pieces of colorful rubber have a whole new unwholesome meaning: They're a sexual code to many teens.
Some colors mean different things, and people wear them for that reason.
Here's a common breakdown, from what teens told NBC 10:
Yellow: hugging Purple: kissing Red: lap dance Blue: oral sex Black: the full monty.
In a game called Snap, if a boy breaks a jelly bracelet off a girls wrist, he basically gets a sexual coupon for that act.
It's become such a problem in some middle schools in Florida, districts started banning the bracelets.
If your daughter is wearing one of these bracelets, it certainly doesn't mean she's having sex, following through on the Snap game, or even knows about the code,.
But experts say it's a good opportunity for you to have that all important conversation about sex, what you think is acceptable, and best for your family.
What goes in one neighborhood may not apply to another, and teenagers have their own ways of interpreting and morphing trends.
What's certain is the bracelets are here, and most kids we asked knew all about the new meaning.
Why didn't anybody think to make it that simple when I was a kid? The whole world would have been so different, wearing a goofy little bracelet instead of working up the nerve to talk to the people we liked...
And what about those girls that wore, like, fifty of them at once?
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
*takes off his yellow jelly bracelet*
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Ok, first of all, I AM NOT OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE A FASHION FROM MY TEENS BE "BACK"!
Second of all, I will never look at one of those silly things the same way again. I never much cared for them, but my friends were really into those silly bracelets. And trust me, that is NOT what they meant to us!
[ November 11, 2003, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: rivka ]
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
This reminds me of something I heard about called rainbow parties. The girls would all wear different colored lip stick and then, well, um... you know... rainbowanize the boys special parts. With the whole idea for the boys to get as many "colors" as they could.
As a father of two, thankfully still very young, daughters all I can think is I'm going to have to chain them in the basement until they are 30.
What is wrong with kids today? Oh wait, I teach, I see kids all day long and I know this answer. Parents stoped being involved!!!!!!!!!
Posted by 2 (Member # 4107) on :
quote:I AM NOT OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE A FASHION FROM MY TEENS BE "BACK"!
That is what I tell myself year after year. After year.
After year.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Those magnetic slap bracelets?! Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
No, I think they're these.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
I meant the next trend. *smack*
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
Oh! *slaps forehead*
*slaps wrist while at it*
Sorry, mack.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Nearly had to get out my stick, I see. Posted by Human (Member # 2985) on :
Sometimes I truly regret being homeschooled...
Posted by BelladonnaOrchid (Member # 188) on :
How absolutely and totally bizarre. Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
My question is, when will this trend catch on in the adult world?
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
My senior year the thing to do was take the blue plastic thing from the inside of a Mountain Dew Cap, punch a hole in it, and carefully stretch it out until it becomes bracelet-sized ring. Same exact connotation as these jelly bracelets. I thought it was stupid beyond all compare.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
It's not at all stupid if you're legal to have sex. It's a super idea.
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
my understanding of that 'code' is a lot less complicated. oh and i've never heard anyone call them jelly braclets. Being a family board i won't give what i've heard them be called. Admittedly this is from a very very small sample but...
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Hadn't heard of this, but it's not exactly a new thing, is it? Don't most communities form codes like this? Certain colored flowers mean things, specific-color bandanas in left or right back pockets, a ring worn on a specific finger of a specific hand -- even knowing to draw the other half of a fish in the sand, or to give the 'high sign' for the He Man Woman Haters Club.
However, they were "in" when I was in high school, so I'm with rivka on this. This makes me feel old. (Like referencing The Little Rascals doesn't....)
--Pop
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
So what's the Hatrack sign?
Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
A gentle, stroking motion?
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
Kittens 'n' Puppies, prolly.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Posted by Ethics Gradient (Member # 878) on :
We had this back in the day, only we had leather bands.
No one ever ****ed me when I broke one though. Must be because I'm ugly. Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
PU-leaze, EG. (You know this hizzo would be all up on's.)
And I'm currently wearing ten black jelly bracelets. However, it would be a mistake to limit my marriage and all it's beautiful, intimate moments to how much jewelry I'm physically able to wear. Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
EG, if you're my Hatrack lookalike, there's no way you can be ugly.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
quote:Sometimes I truly regret being homeschooled...
Ditto. I just can't get as much dirt as I could in Public School. Most of the stuff I hear is through forums or the news. My friends tell me some things, but we usually talk about stuff we actually care about.
So, anyway, would clear or white bracelets indicate abstinence?
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Uh-uh. You really, really don't want to know what those are for.
Posted by Pixie (Member # 4043) on :
::gapes a little:: But... Ewww... Pardon the exaggeration but... ::shivers:: I haven't seen any colors but black and blue at my school and...
Just... yeah, I'm not going to be able to look at some people again (I had been wondering why some people would have one bracelet one day and then a whole bunch the next and now I REALLY wish I didn't know.)
Posted by Ethics Gradient (Member # 878) on :
Whew, and here I was thinking I wasn't gonna get an Ralphie Luvin'™ this month.
And Jon Boy, Justin Timberlake is ruining our style anyway... Posted by TheRatedR (Member # 5190) on :
Is it worse that this is happening or that its newsworthy. Now that this is out of the bag kids will have a new system in place that Dateline doesn't know about shortly.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Actually, like the lipstick parties, I have serious trouble believing that this IS happening to any great extent.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
I suspect it's similar to the equivalent when I was in junior high -- we all knew the “code” and giggled about it, but I never met anyone who actually followed through with it. I'm sure some people do, but not the vast majority of people wearing the bracelets.
Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
I find this crazy. Are you sure it's true ?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Oh, it is Tom, it is. I know it's true--a friend told me all about how a friend of her's did this stuff.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Thanks again to Hatrack for keeping me "cool". Some middle school colleagues were puzzling over the recently announced ban on plastic bracelets, and I was able to enlighten them on a possible reason why.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
Simple solution...cut off the arms of everyone below the age of 18.
*gets out his hacksaw*
Allrighty, who's first? Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
<- is happy she's nearly 22
Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
quote:I suspect it's similar to the equivalent when I was in junior high -- we all knew the "code" and giggled about it, but I never met anyone who actually followed through with it. I'm sure some people do, but not the vast majority of people wearing the bracelets.
This is correct.
Posted by Maethoriell (Member # 3805) on :
What a load of bull. My friends wear black only because they want to be "gothic". Where ever those kids came from, heh...just no. NVM.
Being a teen myself, you must feel played!! Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
I just remember how when I was a teenager, all the information our parents got about dangerous trends in teen culture was very laughably wrong. Not that there weren't some quite dangerous things going on, just that this sort of information they would find out would be completely inapplicable to our school or our area. And if they came to us concerned about this stuff, it was hard not to laugh.
So the best thing, I think, is still to talk to your kids a lot about everything. Know them. And be willing to hear what they tell you. Don't freak out about stuff easily.
As an aunt, I get confidences that parents are not privy to, and in every case the things I hear (though I'm sure aunts get edited versions too) are quite innocent things that the parents would be very angsty about.
I adopted my own girls when they were both very mature and responsible, but I am a mom in the same way prone to freak out about things a bit. <laughs> <coughsaudade'stattoocough> I know for your own children it's different. But still if parents were open and accepting, they would hear a lot more. Remember that they are beginning to be of the age when you DON'T make choices for them, you only advise. If you want your advice to be taken into account, you have to be accepting enough to even find out what is going on so you can know what to talk about.
Another good thing is to encourage your children in friendships with other adults who are your siblings or close friends. Lots of times, things you can't mention to your parents you can tell to concerned other adults. Really, kids crave guidance so much. I wish parents could spend more time with their kids and just talk to them more.
[ November 13, 2003, 07:28 AM: Message edited by: ana kata ]
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
ak, I couldn't agree more. Posted by Anna (Member # 2582) on :
too.
Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
Noemon
aka
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I beilieve this is a combination Urban Legend/Wishful Thinking/Parental Paranoia.
When I was in school, we had different colored M&M's. Man, if you got a green one, you had it made.
I got lots of green ones and gave them to lots of girls, and got nowhere.
Then there was the "Gang Colors". Schools banned the wearing of Red or Blue in school, for fear that everyone who wore red would start shooting everyone who wore blue. The Crypts and the Bloods were going to wipe out the school.
Sure, gangs in schools are bad, but not everyone who had a blue shirt on was a gang member. Removing Blue and Red really limited fashion options.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Wasn't it the CRIPS and the Bloods?
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
Nah, Dan was talking about these guys. Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Yes, I remember when my mom worried that we might be asked to play Dungeons and Dragons in gym class...
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