To be wound up by primary school kids wearing shag bands

[RattusNorvegicus]

I work in a high school and we had Y5 primary school kids visiting for transition today. Lots of them had shag bands on. These have been banned from our school, and I'm sure most of the younger kids don't know what they represent, but it still goes through me to see them being worn.New here, be gentle!

In all the hysteria, did anyone actually bother to read the Snopes link?

And for the record, making a fuss about it is just going to make them all the more important and reinforce their popularity.

try www.shagbands.co.uk/

They may have started off as a child led craze, but don't be fooled that they are not heavily marketed.

I am not sure hysteria is appropriate on this thread, more like opinion.

I also don't subscribe to the making a fuss will make them more popular, do we not say no to anything then for fear of making it more popular?

Parents are actually buying this crap tat, paying good money for their child to knowingly wear shag bands. That is what I disagree with.

We had these bracelets when I was at school. They were just, um, bracelets.

Children will always talk about sex and giggle. Do people really think that 8 years olds are going around with these on, and literally meaning that they are available to perform the sex acts represented by the colours?

Agree with Tombli. If you knowingly let your children buy them and wear them when they understand, and you understand, what they represent then it's very odd. If my 11 and 10 year old wanted them I'd say no, and explain why not. We're very open with them about sex, so it wouldn't be an issue

Put another way - would you let your child wear a T-shirt saying I've had a blow job/shagged/had anal sex? No? Why not?

I stand corrected. I still cant see 5-11 year old wearing bracelets representing i want anal sex. Im sure for most its just a fashion fade, without meaning.

What an odd meaning for anyone to be happy that their child wears

happy for their child to wear

"would you let your child wear a T-shirt saying I've had a blow job/shagged/had anal sex?"

Get your folklore right, wearing them doesn't mean you've done that. BREAKING them does. And the buggers are really hard to frigging break.

Did you honestly never talk about stuff inappropriate to your age and have a giggle about it without your parents having a clue when you were a kid?

You want a moral panic? What about dealing with teen pregnancies due to inadequate sex education, poverty and lack of ambition in our young women? That would be energy better spent than getting het up about a piece of plastic that if banned will just be replaced with something else to giggle about in the playground.

You don't subscribe to the theory that making a fuss won't make something more popular? Good for you. History proves you wrong.

If my nearly 6 year old was wearing a plastic band it would represent 'im wearing a 10p plastic band'!

How terrible that adults would look at this as meaning i want anal sex.

LOL, quite claw. The phrase 'honi soit qui mal y pense' springs to mind.

FFS how ridiculous!

'shag bands' were around when i as at school, some kids believed that if you snapped one it meant the snapper had to shag the snappe, some kids just thought they looked quite cool in a latest faddy trend kind of way.

Lots of kids just used to collect them to see who could get the most colours then swap them, i had farking hundreds all up my arms and i used to braid them into my hair, believe me i wasn't shagging and giving out sexual favours as a child.

preggersslayandchop... - according to shagbands.co.uk's poster Ellaa - you have been wearing a "lovebite" shagband. And judging by what the others mean, you got off lightly.

If I remember being 8-11 correctly, they spend a lot of time pretending to know what sex acts are, and teasing other people for not knowing "Do you know what a blow job is? Bet you don't - tell me then!" in order to try to find out...

So if my DD said mummy will you buy me some shag bands please, i specifically want orange stripey ones because i enjoy frottage, my answer would be no.

If she said mummy all the girls at school have plastic bracelets please can I have some please please pleeeeeeease, then I would consider it.

i ahev shag bands and I am 39

I was talking about this to some 15 year olds
they LAUGH AT the hoo ha parents make up abotu it and have no idea what each colour means and treat it all witha lot of arch eyebrow rasiing

you are over htinking

What do yours mean cheryl?

I would have one which meant "you've got to be joking I'm knackered, ask again in a few weeks"

'Did you honestly never talk about stuff inappropriate to your age and have a giggle about it without your parents having a clue when you were a kid?'

That's my point though rubberduck, the parents do know! It has gone from a playground fad, which always happens and always will to a marketable craze. Parents are going on to shagbands.co.uk to buy them for their DC and you don't think that it strange?

I nor any others have made links between children wearing them and actually performing the acts, that's your own scaremongering going on there.

I just don't get why if someone doesn't agree with a popular way of thinking, that it means they are some sort of Mary Whitehouse character.

Cheryl, I would expect 15 years old to be able to laugh at the old fogies, I just don't agree with 6 year olds being bought shag bands by their parents

what does each colour mean though?

Urban dictionary says:

Yellow - hug.
Pink - hickey.
Orange/purple - kiss.
Red - lap dance.
Green/blue - oral.
Clear - whatever the other person wants.
Black - sex.
White - flash

dd has LOADS of blac ones.

its a fashion statement rather than an outward tally of sexual exploits.

all the hoo haa is a bit 1950's USA fr me

YA definitely NBU

I only found out about these yesterday and I'm a secondary teacher! Have to say I was shocked (and I'm pretty unshockable normally). They're marketed as shag bands and, from talking to students yesterday, secondary kids definitely know what they mean.

Apparently if a boy cuts a girl's shag band, she is obliged to perform the sexual act that she has been advertising; obviously she can say no but it might put some pressure on her mightn't it?

Vile horrible nasty craze.

But at the idea that it would soon die out if we all started wearing them!

i would suggest that if the boys feel it is acceptable to pressurise girls into performing sexual acts, then it will occur whether there are bracelets around ot not.

they DOnt DO it though
they dont say " oh i must show you my tits"
i ahev pink ones
long story as to why - are good to twiddle in boring meetings

I never said it would die out if we all started wearing them - that's making a fuss of it too, no?

It's a successful self-replicating meme. Making a fuss about it, having it constantly in the papers and in the news just spreads it further and makes it more attractive. Telling kids it's banned gives it higher status and a cheap way to be a rebel.

Actually no. I've changed my mind. Keep the hysteria up. I'd far rather my kids rebelled by buying a 10p piece of plastic than anything actually dangerous. And it keeps journalists in a job along with biscuitgate and the LHC destroying the universe.

As you were.