to respond to Inga and the HPV thing
This started out as a comment, but I run on too long, so here we are.
I'm on board for the condoms thing, obviously, but I'm guessing fewer people than we think know about HPV and cancer. I asked around actually, because I was ranting myself, and the kids younger than 25 didn't know. I was shocked. Again, obviously. Maybe they're not talking to their doctors as closely as we did. Maybe their doctors are restricted by this government's Puritan stances on our behavior and education. Maybe we heard these things in sex ed while these kids heard only about how unreliable condoms were. Maybe the focus on HIV/AIDS over the past decades took the wind out of the sails of conversations about other STDs. (Of course, we should focus on HIV/AIDS, but not to the exclusion of other real threats to our sexual health.) I don't know.
I'm aware of these things in large part because I was, at a relatively young age, with a man who insisted on conversations about our sexual histories long before we became intimate. If I hadn't been with him, maybe I'd have let my awareness of these things fall by the wayside of "learned in class before drivers' ed." How many young people have that luxury? And how many women know that they're infected with HPV? How many really are? How many young women have had the "freezing procedure"? How many haven't needed to? How many don't see their doctors regularly enough (or ever) to know either way?
I'm usually as critical as the next guy over drug ads, and I'll wholeheartedly agree that this one's a flim-flam crap-fest. After asking a few women younger than I am, though, I can't say that I don't want women asking their doctors about HPV.
And maybe, just maybe, she'll tell them about, say it with me now, c-o-n-d-o-m-s.
I'm on board for the condoms thing, obviously, but I'm guessing fewer people than we think know about HPV and cancer. I asked around actually, because I was ranting myself, and the kids younger than 25 didn't know. I was shocked. Again, obviously. Maybe they're not talking to their doctors as closely as we did. Maybe their doctors are restricted by this government's Puritan stances on our behavior and education. Maybe we heard these things in sex ed while these kids heard only about how unreliable condoms were. Maybe the focus on HIV/AIDS over the past decades took the wind out of the sails of conversations about other STDs. (Of course, we should focus on HIV/AIDS, but not to the exclusion of other real threats to our sexual health.) I don't know.
I'm aware of these things in large part because I was, at a relatively young age, with a man who insisted on conversations about our sexual histories long before we became intimate. If I hadn't been with him, maybe I'd have let my awareness of these things fall by the wayside of "learned in class before drivers' ed." How many young people have that luxury? And how many women know that they're infected with HPV? How many really are? How many young women have had the "freezing procedure"? How many haven't needed to? How many don't see their doctors regularly enough (or ever) to know either way?
I'm usually as critical as the next guy over drug ads, and I'll wholeheartedly agree that this one's a flim-flam crap-fest. After asking a few women younger than I am, though, I can't say that I don't want women asking their doctors about HPV.
And maybe, just maybe, she'll tell them about, say it with me now, c-o-n-d-o-m-s.
posted by stella at 7:34 PM
2 Comments:
oh, stella, of course i want the kids to talk to their doctors about hpv! my biggest beef with the current commercial is that the majority of people discussing their amazement upon learning about HPV is that these women are older - like mid-30s on. so even the older ladies have some sort of taboo about discussing sex openly?
oi.
word. oy, indeed.
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