Living Posi(+)ively: Dissolving Myths on World AIDS Day
There is an article floating around the Interweb about a 'girl infecting hundreds of men with HIV.'
... Really there are multiple versions, all of them claiming to recount a 'first-person account' of a woman who purposefully infects hundreds of 'unassuming' men, after being unknowingly infected herself. When a third person asked me about it, I knew...
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS BECAUSE ITS BULL.
When society clings to pseudoscience and propaganda... we are all lost.
These kinds of articles are garbage, really. These days, it seems so commonplace to see well-read blogs and publications touting the same pseudoscientific waste; catchy titles get a lot of attention. We want these likes and views so bad, eh?
So let's be real, Homie... Sending a message about responsible sex is important, but these articles are most likely completely UNtrue, and part of a global culture which casts women as the harbingers of disease and shame. This shaming process is a huge barrier and a hinderance in the global struggle, to see the end of sexually transmitted disease. Articles like this misinform, and confuse the real point: Unprotected sex is a bit stupid.
Your defensive options are manifold on this battlefield called 'Love.' Regular testing is one of those types of protection, along with proper male and/or female condom use, pills, gels, implants, patches, techniques, planes, trains and automobiles! There are so many decisions you can make, to keep yourself and your partners safe! There is no gender responsible for HIV transmission... it is the shaming culture which keeps people ignorant, quiet, confused, from getting tested, from living their lives in peace, post-positive.
HIV is completely preventable, like most diseases and infections, however employing scare tactics to 'spook' people out of taking part in something (especially if that something involves sex) is not only elementary, it is dangerous. This issue is hard for Americans, really for most HIV-free folks (in a disease-shaming global society), to understand because we are delusional enough to believe that HIV/AIDS doesn't effect us, that we are separated from it and it's effects, that HIV is a virus of the 'developing world,' or the 'homosexual world.' All your biases aside, please take note:
“YOUTH AGED 13-24 ACCOUNTED FOR AN ESTIMATED 30% OF ALL NEW HIV INFECTIONS IN THE US, OVER 60% OF THEM HAVE NO IDEA THEY ARE INFECTED”
We can certainly blame however we want. It does seem to me, however, that we should just get ahead of the issue and stop the rumor mill before it cranks out yet another self-righteous, completely non-factual, ineffectual shaming process. Shaming isn't bad just because its YUCK, its bad because it doesn't actually work. The human in us is defiant and impressive! The sooner we get over this whole 'I know who to blame,' -thing, the better, and the quicker we can deal with our own shit.
The Real is, my good Homie, safe sex is learned.
Teach yours how to live and last and love. Never ever shame them, and teach them to live intelligently and positively no matter what their physiobiological truths. You can get infected whether its your first time, your 5th time or your 105th time; By anyone, trusted or otherwise, from anywhere; assume everyone is a human being, and be safe. Even you, the virgin! Even you the religious and committed! Even you, the married and the 'I know my partner.' Having HIV does not mean you are anything or anyone 'other.' You are a human being and you deserve life and love... safely and transparently.
As an individual blessed with quite a few HIV(+) friends and family, people I love very deeply; I just want to make sure the reality of their life situation isn't skewed by convenient media.
Having safe sex with a positive(+) partner is possible, so is having children born without HIV, from two HIV positive(+) parents. Education dispels rumor, abates fear, empowers, allows for healing, and feeds healthier future generations. Armed with education and a positive outlook, we can beat disease, and still support those dealing with this daily threat to their well-being, with compassion and intelligence. Small minds are so limited. Propaganda shames, while having frank conversations about the truth at least allows for valid questions to be posed. Much love to the idea of educating over everything, and living positive no matter what!
Bae, you are a starchild, glowing low for the masses to see, so feel free to click the jump for some extra education on STI/STD prevention, testing/locations, condom use, safer sex practices, and other facts specific to HIV/AIDS.
PEACE
#allyalwayslearning #livepositively #nomisinformation #muckrakers #morebettermedia #psuedoscience