i guess that i miss you, i guess i forgive you
Okay, here is a thing I find baffling in 1940s era Steve/Bucky fic - the use of condoms. I don't have a real grasp of gay history during the war (or otherwise), but I feel like that is completely anachronistic. Condoms were for use with ladies so 1. men didn't get STDs and 2. no one ended up pregnant. (Needless to say, the armed forces were not particularly successful in their campaign for safer sex either. But my understanding is that it also led to a lot of men believing they could only get STDs from women, not other men, and since men [and biologically male-bodied people] can't get pregnant, so they didn't bother using condoms with other men.)
I mean, a major point of the safer sex campaign that started in the 80s is that MSM weren't using condoms regularly prior to AIDS, and in order to stop the spread of infection in the population where it was most virulent, they needed to start, no? (I mean, obviously, there is a lot more involved in that re: prejudice and fear-mongering, but that's one takeaway.) And while I am super glad young people today have taken the message to heart, it always jars me out of a story when Steve and Bucky are concerned about it in the 40s.
To be honest, to me, it also seems unnecessary in the present, given that they have the super soldier serum and neither has been sleeping with anyone in recent memory anyway - like, if a non-super soldier were involved, or a lady, then yes, absolutely, condoms, and if they (&/or an alternate form of contraceptive, depending on the relationship etc.) aren't mentioned in het sex, I will probably give the old side-eye, but it just seems unnecessary for Steve and Bucky and also not what they'd be used to with each other if they had been having sex before the war.
I realize that there are a lot of people who have a lot of strong feelings in both directions on this topic, but I feel like it is such a characterization (or setting) thing sometimes - who would have unprotected sex? and under what circumstances? who would never (and what methods would they use)? does even a condom + the pill stop Asgardian (or super soldier) swimmers? Don't you get knocked up anyway if you are sleeping with a fertility god? [also, also, if Sif is a fertility goddess, how does she NOT get pregnant?] But also, are Asgardians susceptible to Midgardian STIs? Do they bring their own with them and how virulent are they, and how can Midgardians protect themselves? do you think the Red Room took Natasha's ability to have children or Zola, Bucky's to produce viable sperm? How much of Steve's ill health is hereditary? (How much of Steve's medical difficulties were due to poverty/poor nutrition/lack of medication/his mother bringing home infection from the TB ward?)
And okay, that got a little off course, and obviously mileage varies, but it's a thing that pulls me out of a story (or perhaps I'm wrong and condoms were in widespread use among MSM in the 30s and 40s and I have to readjust my thinking).
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/682216.html.
people have commented there.
I mean, a major point of the safer sex campaign that started in the 80s is that MSM weren't using condoms regularly prior to AIDS, and in order to stop the spread of infection in the population where it was most virulent, they needed to start, no? (I mean, obviously, there is a lot more involved in that re: prejudice and fear-mongering, but that's one takeaway.) And while I am super glad young people today have taken the message to heart, it always jars me out of a story when Steve and Bucky are concerned about it in the 40s.
To be honest, to me, it also seems unnecessary in the present, given that they have the super soldier serum and neither has been sleeping with anyone in recent memory anyway - like, if a non-super soldier were involved, or a lady, then yes, absolutely, condoms, and if they (&/or an alternate form of contraceptive, depending on the relationship etc.) aren't mentioned in het sex, I will probably give the old side-eye, but it just seems unnecessary for Steve and Bucky and also not what they'd be used to with each other if they had been having sex before the war.
I realize that there are a lot of people who have a lot of strong feelings in both directions on this topic, but I feel like it is such a characterization (or setting) thing sometimes - who would have unprotected sex? and under what circumstances? who would never (and what methods would they use)? does even a condom + the pill stop Asgardian (or super soldier) swimmers? Don't you get knocked up anyway if you are sleeping with a fertility god? [also, also, if Sif is a fertility goddess, how does she NOT get pregnant?] But also, are Asgardians susceptible to Midgardian STIs? Do they bring their own with them and how virulent are they, and how can Midgardians protect themselves? do you think the Red Room took Natasha's ability to have children or Zola, Bucky's to produce viable sperm? How much of Steve's ill health is hereditary? (How much of Steve's medical difficulties were due to poverty/poor nutrition/lack of medication/his mother bringing home infection from the TB ward?)
And okay, that got a little off course, and obviously mileage varies, but it's a thing that pulls me out of a story (or perhaps I'm wrong and condoms were in widespread use among MSM in the 30s and 40s and I have to readjust my thinking).
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/682216.html.
people have commented there.