Abstinence Clearinghouse

The new strategy in the war on AIDS - "ES(oabtwbs)"
by The Professional Virgin
[12.19.2006]

Today I am adding a new acronym to the HIV prevention lexicon. First there were just HIV and AIDS. Then there was abC (abstain, be faithful, CONDOMS for everyone!), followed by abCDEF (abstain, be faithful, CONDOMS, Drugs, Economic development, Female emphasis), and then CNN (Condoms, Needles, and Negotiation). On World AIDS Day, pro-condom activists announced another new strategy. Surely this one will win the war on AIDS. It is ES(oabtwbs). ES(oabtwbs) stands for ENJOY SEX! (oh, and by the way, be “safer”).

On the same day that the Abstinence Clearinghouse published a blog comment concerning The Condom Project promoting sex with condoms as being fun and enjoyable (while de-emphasizing “safety”), other organizations took steps to mainstream this ES(oabtwbs) strategy.

In a commentary published in the Lancet on Dec 2, and in follow-up articles, pro-sex, pro-condom advocates, are pushing this “new” approach to condom promotion.

“Since pursuit of pleasure is one of the main reasons people have sex, this factor must be addressed when motivating people to use condoms and participate in safer sexual behavior," according to authors Anne Philpott, Wendy Knerr and Dermot Maher.

"It blows my mind that the condom companies themselves are so lacking in unique designs and interesting advertising plans," Suzie Heumann, president of Tantra.com Inc. told ABC news. "Condoms could actually be the new sex toys of the future - and without batteries - with design changes, additions, and a new [advertising] campaign."

Yes, condoms are the new sex toys…but surely this would not be tried in schools, after all a January 2000 Lancet peer-reviewed and published report showed that easy access to condoms made the Royal Air Force men MORE sexually active. But, scientific proof never got in the way of condom promoters:

Eli Coleman, a well-known “sexpert” and director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis told ABC, "When teens are taught responsible sex - along with any other kind of responsibility, like wearing a seat belt or using directional signals when driving a car - they tend to become safer, happier, more confident beings. For those that are sexually active - and most of them are - they are looking for ways to enhance pleasure, develop relationships, and enhance their self esteem.”

(By the way, in response to his statement, the facts are: teen sex causes increased depression, suicide thoughts and suicide attempts; seatbelt use does not make better drivers; most teens are not sexually active; teen sex does not develop lasting teen relationships; and sex does not enhance self-esteem. But why let scientific facts get in the way of a good sound bite?)

The pro-sex ideologues in the United States will be targeting this new pleasure message to your teens. In fact they already are:

Be Proud, Be Responsible, a program promoted to schools by a “Programs that Work” list, tells 13 year old students to “Think up a sexual fantasy using condoms.” It also suggests these young teens should “Plan a special day [with their sexual partner] when you can experiment. Just talking about how you’ll use all of those condoms can be a turn on.”

It used to be that pro-sex advocates had to hide behind HIV/AIDS prevention to push their agenda. It is a new day. It is a new strategy. They are out in the open with ENJOY SEX! (oh, and by the way, be “safer”) and no longer pretending to promote prophylactics as disease prevention.

Sources:

“Condoms Can Be Fun, Too” ABC News, 12/1/06

"Promoting Protection and Pleasure: Amplifying the Effectiveness of Barriers Against Sexually Transmitted Infections and Pregnancy," was published in The Lancet (2006;368(9551):2028-2031).

“Condoms and seat belts: the parallels and the lessons” Richens J, Imrie J, Copas A, The Lancet - Vol. 355, Issue 9201, 29 January 2000, Pages 400-403
The hypothesis was simple. Because of mandatory seatbelt laws, more people used seatbelts, and fewer people died. Therefore, if condoms are distributed among the Royal Air Force (RAF), more men would use condoms, and fewer people would die from HIV/AIDS. The funny thing with honest science is that sometimes, the data do not support the hypothesis. The researchers found that although more people did use seatbelts, the automobile death rate remained the same. Because people felt safer with a seatbelt, they took more driving risks. When giving out free condoms to the RAF, more men did use condoms, but, they took more sexual risks – more sex with random and unknown partners – there was no positive benefit to the HIV/AIDS rate.