Rainbow party (sexuality)
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A rainbow party is a supposed group sex event featured in an urban legend spread since the early 2000s. A variant of the standard sex party urban myth, the stories claim that at these events, allegedly increasingly popular among adolescents, females wearing various shades of lipstick take turns fellating males in sequence, leaving a "rainbow" of colors on their penises.[1] The idea was publicized on The Jerry Springer Show in 2003, and became the subject of a juvenile novel called Rainbow Party.[1] However, sex researchers and adolescent health care professionals have found no evidence for the existence of rainbow parties, and such attribute the spread of the stories to a moral panic.[1]
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[edit] Story
Deborah Tolman, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University, writes: "This 'phenomenon' has all the classic hallmarks of a moral panic. One day we have never heard of rainbow parties and then suddenly they are everywhere, feeding on adults' fears that morally-bankrupt sexuality among teens is rampant, despite any actual evidence, as well as evidence to the contrary, but they do exist."[1] Tolman finds that several features of the story ring false. She was skeptical that many adolescent girls would be motivated to engage in such activity in the face of the severe social stigma still attached to sexual activity, and rejected the idea that adolescent boys would examine each others' lipstick marks.[1] However, the urban legend was widespread; an informal survey taken by the The New York Times in 2005 found that most teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 were familiar with it.[1]
[edit] The Oprah Winfrey Show
The rainbow party was publicized in October 2003 on the The Oprah Winfrey Show episode "Is Your Child Leading a Double Life?", which was about the perceived trend of increasing sexual promiscuity among American youth and the lack of parental awareness of the sexual practices of their children.
One guest on the show, who claimed to be aware of teenagers' sexual habits, claimed, among other things, that many teens across the United States engage in "rainbow parties." According to the same report, teenage girls are also competing to see who can have the most babies with black men in an attempt to irritate parental guardians of foster homes.
The report may have been inspired by the earlier book titled 'Rainbow Party' that was a sex-education warning book written in New York. In this fictional book, which is the first reference to Rainbow Parties in any publication, a group of friends are planning attend a sexual party. Some teenagers are forced through peer pressure to attend. In the end, each teenager suffers serious repercussions in the book from rape during intoxication, pregnancy, vaginal disease or throat cancer from the HPV.
This book has been adopted as a sexual education book by some school districts in eastern states of the United States further spreading the urban myth that rainbow parties exist. To this date, there have been no police records indicating that a rainbow party in progress has ever been witnessed by authorities.
[edit] Book
Rainbow Party is also a novel commissioned by a Simon & Schuster editor to "scare" kids.[2] The author was Paul Ruditis. The book, which Library Journal declined to review, is about teens who fantasize about having a rainbow party.
The book proved controversial, as it was meant for teenagers (recommended by the publisher for ages 14 and up), thus raising questions about its propriety. In turn, concerns were raised that excluding the book from bookstores and libraries would amount to censorship. The publishers justified Rainbow Party on the grounds that it was a cautionary tale intended to teach readers that oral sex can be dangerous.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Lewin, Tamar (June 30, 2005). "Are These Parties for Real?". The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2009.
- ^ a b Carol Memmott (2005-05-22). "Controversy colors teen book". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2005-05-22-rainbow-usat_x.htm.
[edit] References
- Paul Ruditis. Rainbow Party. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4169-0235-X.
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