Safe Sex

Wow – did I just date myself with that song? Anyhoo…

News Flash!

• 11% of Americans don’t know you CAN get pregnant while having sex standing up
• 26% never discuss contraception with their partners
• 31% never discuss sexual health such as STIs with their partners

These figures were recently released based on a poll of 2,000 Americans between the ages of 16 and 50 according to this article.

No mention of who conducted the poll nor their methods was revealed, making the poll itself very very very suspect in my mind. (For all I know the author of the article pulled the numbers right out of his you-know-what.) But the validity of the survey isn’t really the interesting part…It’s the idea behind the questions that I’d like to focus on here.

No Sexy Talk with Your Sex Machine?

You’d think that if there was one person in this entire world who you could talk with about sex in an open and nonjudgmental way it would be your own lover. After all, you’re HAVING sex WITH them. At the very least, you’d probably want to talk about life-altering consequences such as…oh…Children and Incurable Diseases!

Breaking it down, I suppose you could avoid the STI conversation after you’ve been sleeping with just each other for a while, assuming no one is cheating, swinging, etc.

But what about in the beginning? Are you really going to have sex with someone without asking if they’ve been tested recently? (And if not, what makes them believe they are disease-free?)  It seems like an awfully big risk for 20 minutes of hot, heavy sticky fun.

But let’s assume you’re willing to take that chance JUST to avoid an emotionally embarrassing conversation…

Not even Contraception talk?! A basic – “Do you use condoms?” “Are you on the pill?” Really? What happens when you’ve both taken your clothes off and are ready to “connect”? Does he just assume she’s on birth control while she just prays she doesn’t get pregnant this time? Eeek!

How can either of you have ANY fun if all you’re doing is worrying about these things in the moment rather than taking care of the issues beforehand?

Even if you don’t care about your own personal safety or possible accidental procreation – at least care about the quality of your sex!

Talking about these “big, uncomfortable” issues lets you relax once the bump-and-grinding begins.  And isn’t that the point of all this in the first place?

So, although I hope those poll results are a little screwy on the actual numbers, I know there are people out there who fall into these no-talky categories and I feel the need to say…

For the Sake of Good, Naughty, Wild and Carefree Sex – Talk to your partner about the “icky” stuff first. Your mind-blowing orgasms will thank you in the end. 

**Speaking of Orgasms** – I think my friend hooked up with that web developer guy the other night. Bad Girl that she is. I know they left together after our dinner, but I haven’t had a chance to catch up with her since. Hope she had all these “talks” we’ve been discussing! Maybe she’s trying to get in on that new Sex Site he’s making. hah.**

Now here’s something you won’t hear about on this side of the Atlantic…A government sponsored program aimed at teaching teens “self-pleasure” techniques!

I think Spain should get the award for Progressive Health Care Nation indeed.

Of course, the religious parties are going bonkers over this – saying such a “touchy” *ahem* topic should be left for parents to discuss with their budding sexuality.

The target demographic is between 14-17 years of age, using pamphlets, etc. and also deals with issues of contraception and self-respect. Although the article doesn’t specify the “why” for this new outreach program, I’m assuming it’s to counter non-solo-teen-sex and lower teen pregnancy/STI rates.

Sounds good to me…At least from a logical adult perspective.

However, thinking back, I’m not sure I would’ve appreciated a cute-little government-made pamphlet trying to convince me that masturbation was better than “the real thing”. (Who are they kidding?!)

I can see these teens getting a good laugh out of it (maybe an actual pointer or two – “OK Ladies, now right HERE is where you’ll find your clit! You know,  just in case you’ve never noticed that super-sensitive spot on your body in the past 15 or so years!”).

Even worse, I can see teens taking pamphlets concerning the Other Gender (assuming they’re heterosexual) to get free sex tips on how to better pleasure their partners. It makes sense. If I wanted to know how to better pleasure my “boyfriend” and this pamphlet is made to teach HIM how to do it to HIMSELF, then wouldn’t it make sense for me to read THAT one instead? Yup. Yup.

So while I like the message and the forward thinking of this campaign, there might be some real-world design flaws that actually teach teens how to have better sex with Each Other rather than themselves – obviously undermining the actual campaign altogether.

Can’t “Win for Losing” I guess…*sighs*

***Other News Update*** I’m not sure what’s going on with this website-builder-guy I mentioned. I brought in one of my friends to see his new site and I think he was hitting on her…It was one of those situations where it could have been him just being “nice” – but afterward she asked if I’d noticed and we couldn’t decide either way – lol. Maybe I’ll bring her around more often just to see what happens between them Haha. So Bad.***

I joined StumbleUpon today and I’ve been addicted to it ever since. I mean ridiculously addicted. Anyway, here’s one of my recent stumbles that I think you might find interesting.

The Pronto Condom

If you go to their website you can see a demo of how to use it. Apparently the act of ripping open a condom package, positioning the condom correctly, and unrolling it takes too long and many people lose their sexual excitement in the process.

This condom takes care of that and makes putting on a condom as easy as it could physically be. All you do is snap the package open and lower it over your penis – no unrolling or finding out which way is correct. It does it all for you. Nice.

The only problem seems to be that it’s available in South Africa and no where else. Maybe someone knows of a condom that works exactly the same way but is widely available?

It’s worth viewing the demo just to see the coolness of it. As a girl, I’d be freakin’ impressed if a guy whipped out one of these and was ready to go before I could blink!

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