Save the Rainbow!

Rainbowbook_1The rainbow used to be the very symbol of simple, innocent beauty. Noah’s Ark, the Wizard of Oz… heck, Kermit the Frog – these are the kinds of things that used to come to mind when we thought of rainbows. As an artist, the rainbow represents all the possibilities of the limited palette; from these few colors, you could paint anything.

Nowadays, though, the rainbow has been co-opted for more nefarious uses. From GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, the rainbow has been adopted as a symbol to give a veneer of happy innocence to the twisted causes of these groups.

Now, the rainbow is being dragged even more deeply into the muck. A new book, Rainbow Party, tells the story of a group of teens who engage in a fairly new form of group sex involving girls wearing different colored lipstick (so, if your kid is ever invited to a rainbow party, just be informed that they will not be doing crafts for entertainment). The book itself would be less irksome if it were not written by an author of juvenile fiction and published by Simon Pulse, a division of Simon & Scuster that specializes in books for teens.

Michelle Malkin comments on the book in the Houston Chronicle, and points out why it is closer to sex-ploitation than to education. Under the guise of "educating the yutes" it will doubtless be showing up in school libraries before long. It reminds me of Reefer Madness, a classic exploitation flick which was designed to generate ticket sales and controversy, but was billed as being for educational purposes (it was re-released at one time under the frantic title Tell Your Children!).

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6 thoughts on “Save the Rainbow!”

  2. “That book was discussed elsewhere on the net and someone mentioned that Snopes says that the accuracy of rumors about such parties is “undetermined”.”
    If an actual “Rainbow Party” isn’t happening, something else as sexually charged is with full knowledge of the girls and boys who attend. During my 6 years of teaching at public high schools I would listen to the students between classes. I heard about orgies and “trains” and all sorts of other parties that occured over the weekend. I went to the principal with this and even called some parents. Alas, I was a trouble maker and a liar for even considering that these things were going on. The kids have their parents snowed. So did I when I was young–but the things that kids are engaging in now are very scary.

  3. I was introduced to such *literature* a few years ago while trying to find books one of my brother’s kids might like that would get them reading stuff other than Dawson’s Creek novels. (No, really. At 12.) Boy, were my eyes opened!
    There was one called Damage about a popular high school football player who’s suffering from depression. It’s full – & I mean full – of graphic, soft-core porn descriptions of various sexual acts. Gratutious doesn’t even begin to describe how obviously tacked-on these scenes were; obviously existing only to titillate, tone changed dramatically just before & just after these scenes in the book. I was shocked & amazed! A teen can get books like these from practically any public school library, it seems! No wonder the porn industry is thriving – it’s being set up by the *young adult* novel market! (Sorry, call me naive, I guess, but this floored me. Can anyone tell me how a books like these, that depict 14 to 17 year olds having various types of sex, are any different from kiddie porn?) So, I go on Amazon to write a *review* to warn parents & find that many teachers have beaten me to the punch, but they wrote in support of the book! Shock doubled! I spent 5 years in the 90’s as a substitute teacher & never, never found a teacher who was remotely this condoning of such tripe. Sad. Pathetic & sad.

  4. Btw, rainbow parties have been around for years; the book is a lagging indicator of the trend. Along with the related colored bracelets.
    I have to say this is not all terribly new; there were things like this among junior high kids 30 years ago, just not as organized, well before the current culture wars; they are (very) lagging indicators, as well.
    Sigh.

  5. Whether such parties existed before the book came out (and I assume they did), the publication of this book (and myriad others like it) only serves to give kids ideas that they might not otherwise have had.
    Parents: Know your kids. Hold them close. Know what they read. Know their friends. Above all, pray for them — pray WITH them.
    ‘thann

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