Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Oh, Please Don’t Go Getting Your Safer Sex Education From digg
filed under: Smart. Safe. Sex., State of Sex Ed, Web Sex Index by Melissa Gira
We’ve tried, we’ve tried, and we’ve failed to keep any regular sexual tabs on digg. Simply put: a) a story on digg needn’t even touch upon sodomy to bring out some users’ inner homophobes-cum-AssholeTeenageBoys (no, that’s not a gay porn); b) when so much sex online is so bad, and then you throw a load of too-much-time (and-god-knows-what-else) on-their-hands digg users at it… yeah; c) this is honestly the kind of thing we would rather have an intern do.
So we’re disdainful and overworked, we admit it — that, and now our expectations for what could be thought of as “smart sex” at digg are astoundingly low.
Which is why I’m rooting for the few sex-positive commenters on this story on a poster of sexual positions supposedly designed as a safer sex intervention for teenagers.
Granted, that a few people would like to engage the otherwise clueless and kneejerk responses with more than a “im in ur girlfriend givn her the aidz” is laudable, but just being jazzed about safer sex does not a peer sex educator make. When that style of “advice” comes couched in comment-jacking bravado and superiority, much like the abstinence-only’s propaganda, any grain of reality possibly conveyed goes distorted and fairly useless.
So, to the aspiring digger looking to so totally pwn everyone when it comes to condoms and fucking: shocking, yes, but Wikipedia is not the end-all be-all resource on sex acts and associated risks. Yes, it has been proven that fear tactics promoting abstinence-only do not reduce HIV transmission. No, if you get HIV, you will not “be dead by your next birthday” — some people with HIV have had the virus for twenty years or more. Of course, this depends on your access to treatment; this other recent digg submission on HIV anti-retroviral drug costs gets into the political economy of Big AIDS Pharma. And yes, condoms are still the most effective way to prevent the transmission of HIV and STI’s. For those of us actually (oh, say it - ed.) having sex.
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Digg truly sucks. The users are really mean-spirited. I know it’s referred to as an “online community”, but it is one of those places on the Internet that has precious little redeeming value.
[…] Oh, Please Don’t Go Getting Your Safer Sex Education From digg : Sexerati: Smart Sex. “So, to the aspiring digger looking to so totally pwn everyone when it comes to condoms and fucking: shocking, yes, but Wikipedia is not the end-all be-all resource on sex acts and associated risks.” (tags: sex sexuality safersex assholes web digg education health) […]
I haven’t even checked out Digg yet — but AAAUGH! That poster is truly, truly horifiying.
And I love, love, LOVE how you paordy the asshole teenage boyness — “im in ur girlfriend givn her the aidz.” Um… Wow.
Forgive me if this comes off as more radical/pomo-than-thou critical — it’s really not meant to be, I promise.
So this is me being nitpicky for a moment:
I wouldn’t say that condoms alone are the most effective HIV/STI prevention. I’d say that latex and latex-substitute barriers are the most effective prevention — including, but certainly not limited to, condoms. Obviously, there are parts and toys that condoms don’t work with, and they still need to be barrier-ed. I’ve done plenty of “high-risk” sex and play that has been totally protected — without condoms.
Yeah…that ad really, really does suck….as much as the horrific and juvenile reaction to it.
Someone needed take the author of that poster aside and very gently remind him in a nice calm voice these caveats that he might have missed:
1) HIV/AIDS is caused by a virus, not a sexual position. (I guess that to the poster’s author, missionary position is HIV-free?? And what about non-PIV sex (oral, anal, masturbation)??
2) You do NOT die the day after if you happen to get infected…and most people having sex are NOT infected to begin with.
3) Using condoms and other means of protection does significantly cut the risk of contracting STDs (including HIV) for those who are sexually active.
If that poster is the best of HIV-education, I’d rather watch porn. At least, it’s more accurate.
(That last paragragh was meant in slight jest. Maybe.)
Anthony