In a previous post, I talked about buying condoms. A box of Trojans I think cost about $10 for a box of 10. That’s about $1 for every time I want to have sex, I can prevent a woman from getting pregnant.
I’m not saying I’m going to have sex with 10 women or have sex with the same woman 10 times or five women twice or two women five times. You get the idea. I have a box of condoms at my house in the event I ever have sex with a woman, I will have “protection” as it’s called.
Or maybe we shouldn’t just call it “protection” anymore. Condoms have always been the type of necessary product that we don’t advertise as much, because there’s no way we can sidestep its main and only use. I mean, with toilet paper, we can always talk about texture and even though you’re buying it to wipe your ass, we don’t talk about it.
I remember there was so much controversy over it 30 years ago when the commercials originally started. Sex sells, but only subtle sex. You can have a woman or a man in a commercial or on a billboard that people will want to have sex with, but if you portray them having sex or even suggesting or implying they’re going to have sex, that’s wrong. Years ago, people got mad at a Geico ad that some say would imply a woman was going to have sex with Maxwell the Pig.
It really makes you wonder who is thinking more about sex and why.
When I started college at Georgia Southern University in the Fall of 1997, I was told I could go down to the health clinic and get an envelope of 10 condoms no questions asked. So, I went down there one afternoon in late September or early October and when I walked in, the entire waiting room was full. And they all glanced at me. Every single one. There must have been two dozen of my fellow students. I just walked out. I didn’t go back until later that term when I knew it would be less busy.
During Homecoming Week, an organization gave out goody bags that included, what else, condoms. A year later, another student organization was passing them out at the student center to anyone who wanted them. I think some women had to hand out so many before they could go. One young woman just handed me four or five.
I didn’t use them, but every now and again, someone would ask me for one. The guy who lived across from my dorm room asked me once and I could sense the embarrassment in his voice asking. But it was nothing to embarrassed about. He had a young woman in his room.
Condoms prevent pregnancies if used right. And how difficult is it to not to know how to use a condom. The problem is we’ve often portrayed condoms as a hassle. I remember there was an episode of Seinfeld in which George couldn’t get a condom package open without losing his erection. If you can’t open a package and maintain an erection, you probably shouldn’t be having sex.
I remember on an episode of Blossom they discussed why should they be taking birth control and it boiled down to them asking how well they trusted the man. And that’s the key issue. Why isn’t anyone pointing the finger at the other side of the aisle?
Condoms are always portrayed as something that are embarrassing or something that’s difficult. I mean, if you can put on a sock, you can put on a condom. But parents literally have to sign forms that they have to allow their kids to watch a condom be put on a banana. Why? Because they’re too embarrassed to have the sex ed instructor put it on a replica of male genitalia.
Part of the problem is sex ed has sometimes been taught by people totally unqualified to teach it. They let the football coaches teach it. Considering they also taught civics, no wondering we’re in such a world of shit right now.
It’s always blame the other side rather than the “good boys who made a mistake. “I can have sex with 365 different women over a one-year period, getting one pregnant every day, and yet, they will still criticize the women for having sex with me. They should’ve known better. And every one of them would have to go to court to get me to submit to tests that would prove that I am the father.
Let’s face it, people are still going to have abortions regardless of what draconian laws are on the books. Young women from affluent neighborhoods will get them. Whenever a politician or religious official gets someone pregnant, she’ll get an abortion. I’m not going to shame a lot of people but we’re pointing the finger at lower-income and non-white women with these laws.
Instead of shaming women, we need to start telling them they didn’t do anything wrong. If a woman didn’t have sex with a man until they got very serious to the point she thought it was going to lead to something more and then he dumped her, it’s his fault. If a married couple consummated their union and the wife got pregnant and the husband didn’t like it, he’s the bad one.
Men can buy condoms just as easy as they can buy anything else at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS or Dollar General, but women can still be denied access to birth control. I know someone who worked for a hospital owned by the Catholic Church, in her late 40s, and she couldn’t get birth control through her employer-based insurance.
What surprises me is how contraceptives for women, like everything else, is more expensive. I bought the box of Trojans, 10 of them, at Wal-Mart for $10 plus taxes. Plan B through Wal-Mart costs almost five times that much. And it’s only one tablet.
Think of this way, pregnancy is a two-way street. But if a car runs a red light or swerves into the other lane, we’re blaming the motorist in the car that gets hit and they got to pay more financially for it.
Zane Says 