immodest proposal
Yesterday, we heard that 1 in 4 teenage girls is infected with any of HPV, herpes, trichomoniasis, or chlamydia. This, of course, is appalling - but what's really angry-making is the CDC's quoted response.
from the CNN article:
"The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, 'screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities.'"
REALLY NOW?
What about education? That's not worth noting as a 'prevention strategy'?
What about sex education for teenagers that discusses infections beyond HIV, and safe-sex practices beyond "use a condom"?
What about taking a long, hard swipe at this criminal federal administration's policy of denying funding to states that don't stop at abstinence-only sex education in public schools?
What about ad campaigns for Gardasil that sell the vaccine as making a choice about one's sexual health, not only preventing cervical cancer? I guess that last one would scare away too many parents who don't want the subject of their daughters' sexual health staring them in the face. Argh.
I was just eating lunch and stewing over this and remembering that, on the subject of awareness campaigns, there are plenty of successful (and commercially co-opted, but that's a different rant) health awareness campaigns. Red dresses, pink ribbons, red ribbons, thetruth.com, Race for the Cure, the MS Walk.
What would it take to run an STD awareness and education campaign, especially outside of the sex-positive community, and outside of schools? What would it take to get it into the states with the worst infection rates? Probably more than I want to invest while I'm busy trying to get a complete other career started, but damn it, this makes me so angry, and I KNOW the money is out there, and it SHOULD be possible, even if our culture still isn't quite ready to admit that teenagers have sex.
from the CNN article:
"The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, 'screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities.'"
REALLY NOW?
What about education? That's not worth noting as a 'prevention strategy'?
What about sex education for teenagers that discusses infections beyond HIV, and safe-sex practices beyond "use a condom"?
What about taking a long, hard swipe at this criminal federal administration's policy of denying funding to states that don't stop at abstinence-only sex education in public schools?
What about ad campaigns for Gardasil that sell the vaccine as making a choice about one's sexual health, not only preventing cervical cancer? I guess that last one would scare away too many parents who don't want the subject of their daughters' sexual health staring them in the face. Argh.
I was just eating lunch and stewing over this and remembering that, on the subject of awareness campaigns, there are plenty of successful (and commercially co-opted, but that's a different rant) health awareness campaigns. Red dresses, pink ribbons, red ribbons, thetruth.com, Race for the Cure, the MS Walk.
What would it take to run an STD awareness and education campaign, especially outside of the sex-positive community, and outside of schools? What would it take to get it into the states with the worst infection rates? Probably more than I want to invest while I'm busy trying to get a complete other career started, but damn it, this makes me so angry, and I KNOW the money is out there, and it SHOULD be possible, even if our culture still isn't quite ready to admit that teenagers have sex.