OUR SEXUAL NORMS THROUGHOUT HISTORY: FROM HERPES TO AIDS
Many people had many partners during the “sexual liberation” of the “swinging” 1960s and 1970s. One result was an epidemic of herpes. Many infected women and men felt great shame and guilt, even though herpes is not a serious health condition. The stigma once attached to syphilis and gonorrhea was transferred to people with herpes. For some time, they were seen as sexually promiscuous, perhaps even immoral. In time, hot lines and support groups were formed to help restore a sense of normalcy to the lives of people with herpes.
In the early 1980s, the stigma associated with herpes was overshadowed by the stigma associated with AIDS. First known as gay-related immune disease, AIDS was first identified among gay men and later among intravenous drug users—groups that were already severely stigmatized. People with AIDS were commonly discriminated against or refused medical and social services in the first years of the epidemic.
As the epidemic progressed, other groups became targets for discrimination. Even children fell into the line of fire. Many people thought that children with HIV should not be allowed to go to school. Some parents kept their children at home when students with HIV were allowed in school. Women were viewed as transmitters of the infection, and only pregnant women were included in most studies. It was more than 10 years into the epidemic before the definition of AIDS was changed to include conditions specific to women.
It is now very clear that all IV (intravenous) drug users and sexually active women and men, all over the world, are at risk for AIDS. Despite public education campaigns and media attention, however, ignorance about AIDS still exists, and arguments continue about the morality of the use of condoms by people at risk of HIV. Today, teenagers and women have the fastest-growing rates of HIV infection.
There is now widespread research being done on AIDS. Although there are improved treatments for many conditions associated with HIV disease, there is still no cure. We have to rely on preventive techniques, including sexual health education. Early in the epidemic, the gay community buckled down to educate itself about HIV and safer sex. Its efforts paid off, and the infection rate in the gay community has fallen. Although the IV drug community was more difficult to mobilize than the gay community, needle-exchange programs have been effective in urban areas.
Despite the evident effectiveness of educational campaigns, the majority of high school students in the United States are still deprived of responsible sexuality education that includes information about contraception, sexual orientation, and safer sex. The old stigmas about sexually transmitted infections still haunt us.
The AIDS epidemic, however, is forcing our society to deal more openly with sex and sexuality. Educators, the media, public health officials, medical professionals, parents, young people, and children are all much more likely to speak frankly and directly about sex than our great-great-grandparents did at the beginning of the century.
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Tags: Men’s Health