You know why there are increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases? We are no longer terrified of AIDS. I am from New York and I followed the news about AIDS from the early days in that hotspot for infection. I remember when it was called GRID, or gay related immunodeficiency. Then there was a lot of attention given to the so-called “innocent” victims of AIDS who didn’t appear to have any behavioral risk factors that society deemed immoral. Then the media decided AIDS wasn’t a punishment from God and they dropped the “innocent” label. I remember the course of the illness in the press mostly for the amount of fear everyone felt. Concerns about COVID didn’t hold a candle to how terrified people were of AIDS..Look–now there’s apparently no reason to be more afraid of COVID as opposed to any other disease. Maybe the mostly-effective vaccine is why we’ve calmed down. There was no calming down with AIDS, not when years went by with no vaccine and no cure. People were uber careful. They wanted to know their partners were negative. Sex without a condom was absolutely unthinkable. People were protected from a range of STD’s. But now there’s a treatment that has transformed AIDS into a chronic, manageable disease WITH medication compliance.
People are not terrified of AIDS anymore.
What’s more, I have read adult discussion sites where men post that women can’t infect men, not easily anyway. None of the writers concerned themselves with what diseases they might spread, unless one figures that if a guy cannot contract the disease he cannot spread it. It is my opinion, which is not backed up by facts, that men are more willing to have sex without condoms, even with adult services providers, because they are not worried about what used to be a guaranteed death sentence in just a few months. The fear of other STD’s has always been less than fear of AIDS and I think if people aren’t worried about AIDS, they really aren’t worried about other diseases.
I interview adult services providers and I have heard that a significant number of men do not want to use condoms. Something like 50-50. Can you believe it? The fact that so many men are not just willing but insistent on not using a condom is one surprising fact in my research of prostitution. I suppose the only way we humans can cope with our mortality is by believing death and disease won’t happen to us. I myself have wondered if we know for sure that everyone dies, maybe there are people who live on under hidden identities…but I digress.
I am not supporting hysteria with unnecessary and unproven precautions, like shutting down life and mask mandates without regulations about mask effectiveness. I am saying that some realistic fear is a good thing, when used properly to encourage people to look out for themselves.
Should we scare people into safer sex (they don’t consider precautions 100% safe so the term is “safer sex” not “safe sex”)? Maybe we should scare people a little. Isn’t that how we teach children basic safety– like looking both ways before crossing the street?
Maybe instead of saying greed is good we should say fear is good.
Caroleena’s unconventional opinion about media coverage regarding AIDS and the long-term impact of the news.
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