Cali Middle School Up In Arms Over “I Love Boobies” Bracelets

Jenbug
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 12:04 pm: [report]

OMG people have boobies?! The horror! There really should be a law to keep them locked up and hidden never to be seen or discussed again!

allisonr
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 01:03 pm: [report]

I think its a fine slogan. I have an “I love boobies” sticker on my dorm room door. Its eye catching and gets the point across.

LadyMacBeth
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 01:34 pm: [report]

Nothing wrong with the statement at all. The venue could be a lot better.

As someone who has worked with middle school students, I invite each parent who is outraged that the school would prefer the bracelets to stay home to volunteer to sub in the middle school for a day while the bracelets are there.  Your child’s right to memorialize a loved one does not supercede the right of everyone else to try and get through their day with minimal disruption.  And in middle school, sometimes it doesn’t take more than a poorly timed sneeze to disrupt things.

Singularity
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 01:46 pm: [report]

I see no problem with the slogan, or the way it is being promoted. It isn’t offensive, and obviously the only problem comes from the place and setting. It’s not the wearers causing a problem, but the idiots teasing them over it.

Perhaps the school does have a point, if this is the only way they believe they can restore order, which is of course critical for a school. But isn’t there a better way, like maybe a little discipline for the ones causing the trouble?

I can’t think of any cause more important than this one. The right to both remember lost loved ones, and also to promote awareness is critically important. It has to be protected at all costs. I think banning these things should be the last possible resort.

danny braciole
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 02:13 pm: [report]

Um, great idea, but not in middle school!!

Like I’ve posted here before- children are idiots. If anybody has spent any significant time in middle school, you’d probably know that middle school children are the biggest idiots you’ll ever want to meet.

If high school kids or college kids want to wear a cheeky breast cancer bracelet, fine.  Most middle school kids I’ve ever known can’t even hear the word “boobies” without cracking up in giddy laughter- I imagine their poor teachers hate these things worse than those stupid slap-bracelets we had back in 1993.

Jenbug
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 02:43 pm: [report]

Kids are not idiots, they may be ignorant but only because they have not been around long enough to have time to learn everything you know as an adult.

Boobies are not bad, even in middle school. This is not sexualizing children; this is reaching out to the next generation of cancer patients in a way they understand to give them the tools to better fight the disease they will all be touched by at some point in their life.

danny braciole
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 03:19 pm: [report]

Nah, I’m pretty sure they’re idiots.

You’re right, boobies are not bad. Ever since I was a 7th grade idiot, I knew that boobies are awesome.  That’s besides the point though- middle school kids are not mature enough to handle a cheeky joke about “breasts,” let alone “boobies”. They are in school to learn, not raise awareness about breast cancer. Wear them all you want outside of school, but “boobie” talk and “boobie” bracelets out of the classroom. If they really want to make a statement, wear pink, or better yet start a fundraiser- leave the jokes and innuendo for high school.

PS- My mom is a middle school teacher.  Can you tell?

CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 03:29 pm: [report]

They should have been all like “We love that bird on the Galapagos Islands with the blue feet”. Might have worked. School admins seem dumb enough to fall for it.

Katrina
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 03:34 pm: [report]

My sister has one of these bracelets, and I don’t see the issue, other than immature teenage boys. It’s an issue that deserves awareness and funding, and this is one way of getting younger women involved (like it says, saying “I <3 Boobies” is a lot catchier than “Support Breast Cancer Awareness and Research”.)

Despite the fact that these girls are in middle school, I don’t see how this is any different than mothers buying baby girls onesies that say “Find a cure before I grow boobs”...except that the male toddlers won’t be harrassing them for it.

danny braciole
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 03:48 pm: [report]

So these same girls who wear push-up bras and gobs of makeup in order to attract the pimple-faced and Axe-deodorant wearing boys in their class are somehow mature enough not to giggle at a word like “boobies”??

Pretty much all these bracelets are doing is inviting immature behavior. It’s working. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re quite getting the message across.  Instead of a discussion about breast cancer, all they’re talking about is stupid bracelets.

How would you all feel if they started wearing “Save the Sack” for testicular cancer? Would the middle school boys be more mature in that case? 

We’re not talking about only teenagers here- these are 11-12 year olds too. Regardless, I believe that none of them have the maturity level to wear a bracelet like this without knowingly inviting attention to themselves- because attention is all that middle school kids want, anyway.

Jenbug
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 03:52 pm: [report]

Kids are cool, raising awareness IS learning and maybe if parents and teachers treated children like real people they wouldn’t be so foolish. Everyone gets so worked exposing children to “private parts” it’s hindering and infantilizing. This is anatomy and health and should be taught in middle school health class.

Everyone Pees is a popular book, maybe we should come out with Everyone Has Boobies to go along with it.

danny braciole
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 03:58 pm: [report]

Teach middle schoolers that girls have breasts and vaginas, not boobies and p*ssies. Boys have testicles and penises, not balls and cocks. The kids know all about it already, they don’t need to have their parents encouraging them to use slang.

If I wore my “I <3 my Penis” shirt in middle school instead of in college, my mother would have never let me leave the house.

Jenbug
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 04:31 pm: [report]

I think the point is they are not making or wearing these to be crass, just to raise awareness. They should not be forced to stop because some kids can’t handle themselves. Why should the progressive mature and involved students be held back from supporting a great cause in a funny and interesting way?

Singularity
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 05:14 pm: [report]

I agree, why should the children who are trying to do something good be prevented by the ignorance of others? The best way to cope with this is with better education, so that the “giggle factor” is taken out of it at the earliest age possible.

This cause needs all the support and recognition it can get, and no one should be trying to work against that, for any reason.

princess consuela banana hammock
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 06:30 pm: [report]

There’s nothing wrong with making breast cancer awareness fun and sexy, but I’m skeptical that this is actually a useful way to “raise awareness”

Everybody knows that breast cancer exists, but do things like silly bracelets and pink ribbons really inform people about the important stuff like self examinations and mamograms.

And being not that far removed from middle school myself, I can guarantee that the girls wearing these bracelets are not really that concerned about breast cancer, and most likely bought them because they are funny and “shocking”.

Vivster
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 07:15 pm: [report]

Many middle schoolers ARE immature and probably can’t see the bracelets without teasing and mocking…(and I don’t just mean the boys; middle-school girls can be cruel if they want to be).  I think, though, that we should be focusing on the people doing the teasing and mocking, rather than telling someone, “If you wear that, people will make fun of you.”  Granted, it’s a pretty provocative bracelet, whose actual purpose IS to get attention (for a cause, though, not for the kid wearing it), but why shouldn’t even 11 and 12-year-olds be held to a standard of mature behavior?

ishbit
wrote on February 3 2010 @ 09:32 pm: [report]

Hahaha, my 14 year old brother has a shirt that says “I love boobies”.

C.Munro
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 02:00 am: [report]

I bet a bracelet that says, “I love violence” wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. 

Just sayin’ ....

danny braciole
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 08:33 am: [report]

@Singularity: So if we just introduced kids to naughty words at a younger age, they wouldn’t find them funny anymore?  You can honestly imagine a world in which middle school kids can deal with their changing bodies and body images with maturity and tact??  Wow- I’ll just go ahead and assume that nobody here knows any real-life middle school kids.

(Side note- wearing a bracelet is not activism, it’s not awareness, it’s a fashion accessory. It allows people to feel like they’re doing something, it allows them to feel like a part of a movement, but all it means is that they can conform to whatever the hell everybody else is doing around them. I don’t care if you’re in middle school or in middle age- stop pretending you’re really making a difference just because you’re wearing a trendy [or snarky] fashion accessory.)

Singularity
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 09:03 am: [report]

@danny braciole

No, of course you are never going to eradicate that attitude amongst younger children, but maybe with a little effort and better education the situation could at least be improved slightly from where it is right now.

No I don’t know any kids of that age, so I am just throwing around an opinion here, and I may well be completely wrong. But I think something could be done to move things forward a little.

As for bracelets, yes I have no doubt at all that for a great many children that’s exactly what they are, just a fashion accessory. But that doesn’t mean they don’t help at all. If even just one single girl’s life is saved by the tiniest influence of remembering what it said on her bracelet years before, then it was all worth it. She may only wear it because her friends do, but the message is still there, and it just might make a difference one day.

danny braciole
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 09:41 am: [report]

Just to be clear, I’m not against breast cancer awareness. I’ve lost family members to this disease, and think it’s great that little middle schoolers know about it and are doing something about it.

But every middle schooler I know (the boys and the girls) are immature, attention-seeking idiots. They’re all like Paris Hilton, just given the benefit of the doubt because they’ll eventually grow up to know better (we hope). 

Sure, they might have the right intentions. But in their untrained and immature middle-school brains, the most fortunate effect of wearing their little “boobies” bracelets is that it makes the boys pay attention to them and talk about their naughty bits. Forgive me, but I am damn near positive these girls are more concerned with riling up the boys than saving breasts that most of them haven’t fully developed yet.

Like I said, they can’t help it.  Their heads are swimming in a sea of hormones and their bodies are changing more rapidly than at any time in their lives before or since.  They’ve got a lot on their plate, and they’re too overwhelmed to bother being mature. I love the little monsters, but they really are not ready to joke about “boobies,” however subtly.

Singularity
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 10:06 am: [report]

@danny braciole

That’s OK, I didn’t mean to imply you were against it, and I am very sorry that you have suffered losses to the disease. I lost someone to it also, which is why I perhaps let this subject carry my away a little.

I do see your point, and to be honest my only experience with children of this age dates from when I was one, which was a long time ago. So I have no real understanding of how they behave, and I don’t mean to pretend otherwise.

I do see both sides to this. On the one hand children this age are almost incapable of understanding the seriousness of what they are representing with these bracelets. The disruption they cause is obviously a concern, and you are probably right, at least some of them may choose to wear the things just to stir up trouble and attention. On the other side, it is a terrible disease which afflicts a lot of women, and awareness of it is a key weapon in the fight against it. Naturally enough, the younger girls know about it, the better prepared they will be.

Where to find the compromise?

Only someone with greater understanding of children than me can answer that. I agree though, too many other distractions for them at that age for any real chance of many of them taking it seriously. I just wish they were allowed to have the opportunity.

Jenbug
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 10:52 am: [report]

I do know children of this age, and I think they are severely underestimated. They are smart eager little people, and they are great at living up to expectations however high or low they may be.

Breast cancer affects women AND men and all genders need the life saving awareness. Even if these children are only wearing these to be fashionable, they are still buying them so their money is at least helping, if not their minds. Also this is a great way to teach them creative thinking, boring scary things can be introduced in a funny friendly way that eases them into the subject. Cancer is not ageist it can strike anyone at any time who are we to say they are too young to learn and be a part of this cause?

It sounds to me like these teachers don’t know how to deal with the children who are unable to control themselves so they are taking the easy way out instead of teaching the misbehaving students respect.

danny braciole
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 11:32 am: [report]

@Jenbug: I think we can all agree that breast cancer awareness among these kids is a good thing.  That’s not the debate though.

There’s an appropriate time and a place for everything, and middle school is the wrong place for this type of “awareness.” (What happened to the little pink bracelets they used to sell- they stop making those all of the sudden?) Administrators are free to draw the line when it comes to crude or slang terms showing up on the clothing of their students- if the actions of a few (the ones wearing boobie bracelets) affects the behavior of the majority of their classmates, the teacher has every right to halt the behavior that’s causing the disturbance rather than waste more class time attempting the impossible (stopping middle school kids from being immature).  That’s not taking the easy way out, that’s good classroom management.

One of the best experiences of my life was coaching 7th and 8th grade football for 5 years. I loved spending all that time with those kids.  They weren’t quite adults, and they certainly weren’t babies anymore- and you’re right, they live up to (or down to) expectations.

It’s clear to me this school expects them to behave appropriately and not wear clothing or accessories that use slang language to refer to their own budding sexual organs. This isn’t because the school thinks kids don’t know what “boobies” are, or that they’re trying to deny the fact that girls, in fact, have “boobies”- it’s because the bracelets are distracting the majority of their students (the ones wearing them as well as the ones giggling about them in the corner) from their schoolwork.

I don’t understand why this concept is so hard to grasp.

Singularity
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 11:33 am: [report]

@Jenbug

Yes, a very good point indeed. All else aside, at least money is going where it is needed, and if even one person is helped to think about the matter early enough to save her life, then it will all have been worthwhile.

It is very true indeed that this is a disease which can strike at any age. Just because the risk increases with age, that does not mean young girls should not take it seriously. I have seen someone aged just 18 die from this disease, and I would do absolutely anything to prevent that from happening to someone else.

And yes, perhaps the teachers should try a little harder to maintain some kind of order. This seems a very small thing to be causing such “uncontrollable” disruption…

Jenbug
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 01:44 pm: [report]

I have to disagree with the thought that it was the majority of kids; it was some boys who were harassing the girls wearing them.

If these bracelets get pulled what message does that send to the boys? If you don’t like something harass the people doing it and the thing you don’t like will go away. Or we can create an environment of respect for other people’s ideas and beliefs. These kids are learning about these body parts in health and they would not be aloud to be disruptive in class so why does that protection stop once the lunch bell rings? These girls are being harassed and the teachers are basically saying you brought this on yourself, and then punishing them.

Singularity
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 05:18 pm: [report]

@Jenbug

Absolutely right. That is another lesson children of that age should learn, that they can’t get what they want through harassment and intimidation. It is not as if these girls are walking around with vast slogans printed on their clothes, forcing people to look. These are just little baracelets, quite small and subtle, not intended to draw vast amounts of attention. They are just one small way to contribute, to show support, and to spread awareness.

Teachers should come down on those causing the trouble, not on the girls doing no harm to anyone. Banning the bracelets instead sends a terrible message to everyone.

Jenbug
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 05:50 pm: [report]

@ Singularity Absolutely!

camelo27
wrote on February 4 2010 @ 07:14 pm: [report]

I fail to see how banning bracelets that have the word boobies on them will prevent middle schoolers from being immature. All of the middle schoolers I know could find something else to be immature about in less than the amount of time it would take the administrators to ask these students to not wear the bracelets. Maybe we should ask 12 year old girls to just not develop breasts until the 12 year old boys are mature enough to not make jokes about them.

Singularity
wrote on February 5 2010 @ 04:45 am: [report]

@camel027

Exactly right, if this doesn’t give them an excuse to behave stupidly, then they will just find something else instead. That is exactly the point I was trying to make, which is that yes while it is impossible to completely stop immature bahaviour in such yong children, banning these bracelets will do nothing to stop it, only punish those who are doing nothing wrong.