A rainbow party is a supposed group sex event featured in an urban legend spread since the early 2000s. A variant of other sex party urban myths, the stories claim that at these events, allegedly increasingly popular among adolescents, people wearing various shades of lipstick take turns fellating others in sequence, leaving multiple colors (resembling a rainbow) on their penises.[1]
The idea was publicized on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2003, and became the subject of a 2005 juvenile novel called Rainbow Party.[1] Sex researchers and adolescent health care professionals have found no evidence for the existence of rainbow parties, and consequently attribute the spread of the stories to a moral panic.[1]
Origin
The earliest known use of the phrase "rainbow party" is by American Christian pediatricianMeg Meeker in her 2002 book Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids.[2] The book related allegations of adolescents suffering cancer, sterility, acute infections, and unwanted pregnancies as a consequence of starting sexual activity too early in life. Meeker relates the following story alleged to be from a 14-year-old patient from Michigan:
[Allyson] had heard some kids were going to have a "rainbow party," but had no idea what that meant. Still, she thought it might be fun, and arranged to attend with a friend. After she arrived, several girls (all in the eighth grade) were given different shades of lipstick and told to perform oral sex on different boys to give them "rainbows." Once she realized what was happening, Allyson was too stunned and frightened to do anything. When a girl gave her some lipstick, she refused at first but, with repeated pressure, finally gave in. "It was one of the grossest things I've ever done."[3]
Meeker's book did not gain much attention. The following year, the concept of the rainbow party came to mainstream attention: the August issue of Seventeen included an article on oral sex which quoted a sex educator describing the phenomenon, and in October that year rainbow parties were discussed on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[4] The 2005 novel Rainbow Party, inspired by the Oprah feature, generated more media coverage of the idea of the rainbow party; media interest in rainbow parties peaked in this year.[5]
The sociologists Joel Best and Kathleen Bogle, in their book Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex argue that Meeker is unlikely to have invented the idea of the rainbow party. Though they were unable to find any evidence of it being discussed before Meeker's book, they suggest that it was likely an existing urban legend in relatively limited circulation among American teenagers which was made much more widespread by the media attention given to it.[6] In an article for Reason, the journalist Cathy Young identifies the media attention to rainbow parties as part of a broader moral panic about oral sex, which she suggests was triggered by the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal which came to light in 1998.[7]
Evidence of falsity
Deborah Tolman, director of the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University, wrote: "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."[1]
Tolman found that several features of the story ring false. She was skeptical that many adolescents 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 they would examine each other's lipstick marks.[1]
Reason writer Nick Gillespie has claimed "Rainbow parties are as real as unicorns".[8] Similarly, Best and Bogle say that while it is impossible to prove that no rainbow party ever happened, they were unable to find any evidence of them and conclude that there is no reason to believe that they were common.[9] In an episode of the podcast You're Wrong About discussing urban legends, the journalist Michael Hobbes notes that while there is limited data on rates of oral sex among teenage girls, surveys of teenage boys' sexual behavior suggests that rates of teenage oral sex did not change between 1995 and 2011, despite concerns about teenage oral sex during this period.[10]
In the media
The idea of the rainbow party was publicized in October 2003 on the episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show titled "Is Your Child Leading a Double Life?", which was about the trend of increasing sexual promiscuity among American youth and the lack of parental awareness of the sexual practices of their children. In O Magazine, Michelle Burford asserted, among other things, that many teens across the United States engaged in rainbow parties.[11]
Rainbow Party is a 2005 novel by Paul Ruditis commissioned by a Simon & Schuster editor.[12] The book, which Library Journal declined to review, is about teens who fantasize about having a rainbow party. The book has proven 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.[12]
In the NCIS episode "Iced", screened April 4, 2006, the term is mentioned as being heard on a wire tap of a fictional gang.
On May 27, 2010, the television program The Doctors discussed the topic with dozens of teens, parents, and professionals.
Rainbow Party (2015) is a 15-minute Icelandic film that tells the story of 14-year-old Sofia, who is being bullied by a popular girl clique at school. One day Sofia decides to fight back and the girls see her in a new light. She is invited to join the girls as they attend a party. Nervous, Sofia decides to take her best friend Einar with her to the party which is being hosted by the most popular girl of all. At the party, the girls challenge Sofia to join them in completing the rainbow challenge – where each girl puts on a different shade of lipstick, and all girls then place their lips once on a boy, leaving him with a rainbow pattern on his penis. An eighth grade boy is in a room in front of a mirror, passed out from being given too much alcohol. She is to add her color and take a selfie of it as proof to the other girls and is stunned to discover it is Einar. Nudity is implied but not seen on camera. Shown in America with English subtitles.
In the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode The High School Reunion Part 2: The Gang's Revenge, aired December 15, 2011, Charlie Kelly uses the term when describing changes in teenage behaviour.
↑ Best, Joel; Bogle, Kathleen A. Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex. New York University Press. p.27.
↑ Best, Joel; Bogle, Kathleen A. Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex. New York University Press. p.28.
↑ Best, Joel; Bogle, Kathleen A. Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex. New York University Press. pp.28–29.
↑ Best, Joel; Bogle, Kathleen A. Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex. New York University Press. pp.30–33.
↑ Best, Joel; Bogle, Kathleen A. Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex. New York University Press. pp.15–16.
↑ Michael Hobbes; Sarah Marshall (24 October 2018). "Urban Legends Spectacular!". You're Wrong About (Podcast). Event occurs at 01:10:30.
↑ Trystan T. Cotten; Kimberly Springer, eds. (2010). Stories of Oprah: the Oprahfication of American culture. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN978-1-60473-407-2.
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