Yes it is. But so is travelling abroad; driving on backroads; drinking; doing drugs; staying out late; sailing; scuba diving; and well, changing jobs is pretty risky too.

Touché, quicksand, touché. Although my point still stands with all but traveling abroad, since that’s the only one where you’re at a comparable level of risk from relative strangers.

If I was inclined to have sex with partners I wasn’t first friends with, I’d probably be less willing to eschew that risk. I prefer quality of intimacy over quantity, though.

I wonder what the appeal of intimacy with strangers is for people who desire such. Thoughts?

I think for me it’s always been a combination of being a highly sexual person, and not very risk-averse (ie I didn’t pay much attention to the risk as opposed to seeking it). At least that’s how it was in the past. I’m less so these days – someone who’s a bit more cautious. This article has made me think I might go get tested.

Because the cows, pigs and chickens needed them worse than you.

‘Skanky sluts’ is [...] slut-shaming language. It is offensive and deserved to be disemvoweled.

I don’t disagree (and it was perhaps needlessly provocative of me not to make that clear). I was just annoyed that Maggie had made this into

[...]you want to pretend that women are the only humans who spread STI’s [...]

which I *don’t* think was a fair criticism, for the reasons I gave.

One can certainly play the odds, and probably get away with it for some time, but even a slight risk of catching something (so far) incurable, and often lethal, puts quite a damper on the dice-roll, if you ask me.

Is it just not profitable for Megapharmcos to invest in buckets?

The idea that any partner is equally likely to have STDs regardless of education, class, background, habits, etc. is wholly false.

In 2009, ten Illinois counties reported greater than 30% of their population over the age of 25 had attained a Bachelor degree or better. There were ten counties that reported fewer than 12% of their population had achieved the same. [source: US Census Bureau]

The first group of counties averaged 98 cases of gonorrhea per 100,000. The second group of counties averaged 67 cases per 100,000. [source: Illinois Department of Public Health].

You’ve just forgotten what a great place college is to earn your STD.

thanks a LOT!!!

Why not spend a month or two getting to know a partner before sleeping with them?

Nothing sucks more than spending a ton of energy and time figuring out if you are culturally/socially/psychologically/mentally compatible only to find out you’re sexually incompatible.

And, even if you know them for a month or two, you still don’t know if they’re going to sleep with someone else or that they don’t already have a disease they don’t know about or the tests you’ve done are before the incubation rate of the disease they picked up right before they started ‘dating’ you.

And finally, not taking a relationship to the next level means that even for the monogamous, they’re totally allowed to date other people. If they sleep with someone else and they are monogamous, then they will break up with you.

The longer the incubation period, the worse the problem.

And let’s be honest: the only reason we were able to eliminate smallpox was by accepting universal infant cowpox infection. Having a milder illness we voluntarily submitted our children to is not a common option.

No, it just means be picky about who you have sex with (as it should always be anyway). Don’t go down on someone who is a total stranger, who sleeps with lots of other people, or who has the personal hygiene of a troll.

You have just rolled back a quarter century of understanding in the prevention of infectious diseases. Villains do not all twirl their moustaches. Criminals don’t all look shifty. That perfectly scrubbed lady or gentleman who claims to be practically a virgin is just as likely to have a venereal disease as the person that you view as unsavory. You can’t tell anyone’s lifestyle or history from looking at them or a having a conversation.

Dare to dream big, man. Like… “Argh! Why can’t blowjobs cure drug resistant strains of gonorrhea???”

“He’s dead, Jim.”
“But, why, Bones? Why?”
“If I may, Captain. It’s a logical consequence of what your Earth scientists call ‘natural selection.’ There was simply no one on board the Enterprise who would have been pleased to give Lt. Rotehemd a blowjob.”

personally i like to panic at the earliest possible moment.

The worst part is, it’s un-tweetable.

I’m not saying that you are forbidden from taking more offense than was intended, but I think you should do so in the knowledge that that’s what you’re doing.

That perfectly scrubbed lady or gentleman who claims to be practically a virgin is just as likely to have a venereal disease as the person that you view as unsavory. You can’t tell anyone’s lifestyle or history from looking at them or a having a conversation.

That perfectly scrubbed lady or gentleman *may* have a venereal disease: sure, no argument. S/he “is just as likely to”: do you have data to back that up? I want to see figures, just once, before I’ll accept put-downs like “have rolled back a quarter of a century of understanding” in lieu of reasoned argument.