I work on a campus now, so I sometimes visit the Student Health Services office.
I took advantage of a recent visit to pick up some brochures.
One brochure lists "101 Things You Can Do to Avoid STDs".
Following any one of them would certainly reduce your chances of contracting an STD. But I'm concerned about the anti-poly bias built into the brochure.
Several of the "things you can do" promote monogamy ("Be monogamous", "Have sex with only 1 person, who only has sex with you", “Have sex with only one, mutually monogamous, uninfected partner”).
I can't dispute that these things might reduce your chance of picking up an STD. Then again, they might not.
Because you don't get STDs from your sexuality, you get them from "germs" (bacteria, viruses).
These brochures bother me when they lose the focus on that fact.
Am I simple-minded, or overly pedantic?? I think the brochure should emphasize that fact, then let people evaluate the suggestions.
You can have sex with a virgin, and still pick up a disease – if your partner was born with it or was infected via a blood transfusion.
You can have multiple sex partners and never become infected – if they aren't infected (the trick, of course, is ensuring that they aren't infected!)
In my foursome, we all got tested for HIV before becoming sexual, then we were exclusive amongst ourselves.
The brochure talks extensively about condoms. But what you really need to remember is: Don't come in contact with bodily fluids (especially semen, vaginal secretions, and blood). If you can manage that, you can avoid most risk.
The best information that I ever received came from an HIV counselor at a local clinic. She explained that there was enough HIV in a single drop of blood to infect you. It would take about a teaspoon full of semen, and substantially more vaginal fluid (I forget exactly how much – maybe a pint?), and a quart of two of saliva!
This may have been simplistic. Yet people don't think much about wiping off a friend's cut or bandaging it (I wonder: Do young people still make promises of "blood-brotherhood" and seal the promise by mixing their blood together…?). It's much more psychologically fulfilling, somehow, to condemn sexuality than to examine dry facts. None of the brochures said "avoid touching someone else's blood".
The brochures suggested you only have sex with one person ("who only has sex with you"), but didn't suggest only have sex with virgins. It also didn't say "don’t sex with gay or bisexual men".
I suppose that the authors did not want to "blame" gays and bisexuals for disease. But they apparently thought it perfectly natural to suggest that "having multiple partners" is suspect
Hmmm.