Good Vibrations Magazine

My partner Robert and I recently went out to grab lunch at the Tempest, our favorite burger joint, a place near the Good Vibrations office that hosts bands, a bar, and an active pool table. Robert headed for the restroom to wash up and came back steamed. He described a Planned Parenthood poster he’d seen in the men’s room that was evidently designed for hangouts just like the Tempest, where bike messengers and downtown office workers come to toss down a couple of beers after work and maybe look to hook up. It pictured several attractive young women standing together in a club, with a caption reading something along these lines: “One out of four women has a sexually transmitted disease.”

Robert felt the poster represented sex-negative scare tactics, and I had to agree. If the message had been followed with “so use a condom,” I wouldn’t have minded so much, but simply making men worry about whether they’ll catch a disease from this evening’s crush seemed much too much like the tactics of the abstinence-only folks. Ironically enough, the abstinence people are trying to supplant Planned Parenthood in schools across America. It hardly seems right — or even believable — that a fine organization like PP would take a page from their book. But there it was, seemingly without any additional message to differentiate it from “Just Say No”-style propaganda. (It turned out there was such a message, but it was in much smaller print.)

Now, if 25% of women (which women? in bars? in the world? in the US?) really have a sexually transmitted disease, I imagine it’d be fair to warn people about it. Those aren’t terribly long odds (one reason I’m especially sorry PP didn’t add a condom reminder to their text). If it’s true, perhaps the poster performs a needed service. But is it true?

Any statistic must be scrutinized through the lens of researcher bias, study sample size, and other factors that can affect the results; the biggest problem with this one is its grandiosity. It’s an overarching claim — how could anyone have determined information with that scope? I’d hoped the Planned Parenthood staff member in charge of the organization’s informational outreach would be able to explain, so we called her. She said the stat had come from the national office and conceded that it really referred to “sexually active” women; she was sure the numbers the national office had provided were correct. PP had gotten grant money to reach out to men, hence this poster campaign.

The San Francisco Health Department couldn’t corroborate the numbers when we called them. “They sound extrapolated,” they said — that is, one in four women who had been tested for STDs had tested positive for one of the various sexually transmitted conditions, from chlamydia to HIV. The National STD Hotline, too, was unfamiliar with the statistic. And Robert wasn’t even buying the “sexually active” part, he was so steamed: “Masturbating women?” he asked.

Planned Parenthood has played an enormous part in making sex safe for women — not so much because it’s a leader in safe sex education, but because the first concern of women who have sex with men is so often pregnancy prevention. That most women today have access (at least in theory) to contraceptive information has become fundamental — thanks to Planned Parenthood. That many women have access only through PP, not through an increasingly inaccessible medical establishment or through family members’ goodwill, is equally true: supporting their good work remains crucial. And I have only praise for the spirit behind their efforts at safe sex education — it is obviously inseparable from contraceptive information and access for many, even most, of the people they serve. That they have decided to extend a greater degree of outreach to men is even better news. It takes two to tango, especially as far as pregnancy and STD prevention goes.

The poster’s intent — when you get to the small print — is to make men aware that many people have undiagnosed sexually transmitted diseases, and to urge testing and treatment for them and their partners. 80% of people with STDs show no symptoms, says the text; that’s about right, and it’s one of the most dangerous things about these conditions — they can go untreated and, depending on a person’s sexual patterns, spread unchecked. I wholeheartedly support their goal of awareness and testing — who wouldn’t?

But why do it by making guys afraid of the woman at whom they’re making eyes? This is a fundamentally sex-negative message, and takes the responsibility off the men themselves — plenty of them, of course, have STDs too. It’s information the average guy can’t use while he’s hanging in the bar, or even when he’s taking a woman home. I’m trying to imagine myself as a bike messenger, or a frat guy, or one of the other young men this message is designed to reach. If I were a hip San Francisco bike messenger, of course, I’d have a condom in my pocket and be ready to use it, but what about the drunk frat guy in Dubuque? If I were that man, I’d check out the women in the bar and try to figure out which one was okay — just like scared women tried to do in the 80s when pop media made them afraid they’d get AIDS from a bisexual man.

The bottom line is, scare tactics don’t empower. They certainly don’t help people make choices in which their chance of harm is reduced. The poster’s fine print is useful — it’s just not very relevant to the guy in the bar, at least not until tomorrow when he can call Planned Parenthood to make an appointment. Tonight, he ought to use a condom.

Have you had a check-up lately? PP’s services are free or sliding scale, and they can help with sexually transmitted conditions as well as contraceptive needs. They have an office in a city or town near you. If you need more information about STDs you can call the National STD Hotline. Their number is (800) 227-8922.