We’ve all seen the bracelets on people ages 13 to 30, and no matter who wears them, they are still weird and inappropriate. I don’t care how comfortable our society today is with crude language, I don’t want to see a 12-year-old boy wearing a bracelet that says “I Love Boobies.”

   The Keep A Breast Foundation is a more youthful national Breast Cancer Foundation. The cause is the same — to increase the awareness and the education of breast cancer in society — but the reasons for sporting symbols of support for the campaigns (such as bracelets) are arguably different. Kids were never as quick to grab a pink ribbon band at the height of their popularity. And while the Keep A Breast Foundation was meant to target kids, I would be willing to bet that a large portion of the high school students who choose to support breast cancer through the “I Love Boobies” bracelets would not be as quick to support prostate cancer with the same type of campaign.

   This school year, the popular bracelets have been a problem in multiple schools due to the crude language used. Schools have gone as far as to ban the bracelets entirely.  

   The Keep A Breast Web site states “The purpose of Keep A Breast’s I Love Boobies! Campaign is to speak to young people in their own voice about a subject that is often scary and taboo.”  The thought is a good one, but I would hope that we seem like a generation with a more powerful and intellectual voice than a group of young people who could sum up our support for breast cancer research with a little more than “I Love Boobies!”

    The popularity of these bracelets is not due to the desire to show a person’s support for breast cancer research, it’s because a kid is able to wear a sexual bracelet without being punished for it. And while I’m sure many of the people who wear the bracelets genuinely do care about the awareness of breast cancer, why wouldn’t they go with a more mature option?

   The Keep A Breast Foundation has used art, music and new educational ways to inspire people to become more educated on the cancer that affects one in eight women. However, it is sad that harsh language was needed in order for the campaign to thrive. It is unfortunate and almost embarrassing that this bracelet has become the most popular trademark of the organization because crude language was needed in order to gain more financial support for breast cancer research. These bracelets are obnoxious, inappropriate, and frankly, weird.