Salon.com > safe sex

Ban on free condoms under scrutiny at Boston College

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Boston College, a private Jesuit university in the tony suburb of Newton, MA., officially bans the distribution of condoms on campus, and the policy has recently caused a considerable amount of friction with a student sexual health group.

After years of operating on campus without incident, the group, Boston College Students for Sexual Health, received a letter in March from the administration, ordering them to stop giving out free condoms and sexual health education kits to students.

According to The New York Times, the letter explained that "the distribution of condoms is not congruent" with the values and traditions of Boston College:

While we understand that you may not be intentionally violating university policy, we do need to advise you that, should we receive any reports that you are, in fact, distributing condoms on campus, the matter would be referred to the student conduct office for disciplinary action by the university.

Bill Gates wants you to invent the condom of the future

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Sex (as long as it is consensual) pretty much always feels good. Because, you know, it is sex.

But global public health advocates understand that due to cultural stigma, social pressure and generic "it just doesn't feel the same" whining, people still aren't using condoms at the rate that they could be given how widely available they have become.

So with that in mind, the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, put out a call for a better designed, more pleasure-inducing condom. The challenge is to make an experience-enhancing condom that will make men and women go weak in their desire to have protected sex! For the good of humankind!

The problem (emphasis mine):

I can’t turn off my thoughts

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Hi Cary,

I'm not really sure how to parse the stream of thoughts that got me to "I can't turn off my thoughts" ... that's probably because they're anxious thoughts, and they're running around all over the place. I guess I'll start by saying that I recently started online dating.

I don't think that I'm a good "dater." I'd much rather skip ahead and either be branded girlfriend or left alone. The in-between is not fun for me. I get anxious, paranoid and insecure. I've had a lot of false starts lately, so online dating seemed more deliberate -- a better way to get to the point. And in fact, I've met someone I like. We've been seeing each other for over a month now. My problem is that I can't let go from there.

Study: Condoms don’t ruin sex. Really

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:29:00 +0000

Impressionable young people and other sex novices, gather round! There is no longer any reason to let someone pressure you into having sex without a condom. So no more falling for "it just feels better" at the last minute, you hear?

Sex with condoms is totally the same as sex without condoms. Science says so.

A new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that within a nationally representative study of American men and women, sex was rated as "highly arousing and pleasurable" whether or not condoms were used. Translation: Consensual sex is pretty much always going to feel good. Because it is sex.

Researchers from the School of Public Health at Indiana University reviewed how men and women ages 18-59 rated their last sexual experience and found that the "results showed that men and women consistently rate sex as highly arousing and pleasurable with few differences based on condom or lubricant use," according to the study.

And there was no significant difference found in how easily men reported getting erections while using condoms, either.

“Condom ambulance” coming to a campus near you

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:44:00 +0000

There's not much need to leave the house these days. Seamless brings you sushi during a superstorm, Amazon delivers books to your doorstep and Netflix ensures that you never read them. For those curious about the next big thing in our increasingly stationary consumer culture, look no further than the Condom Ambulance, a condom delivery service for your latest sex emergency.

Launched by College of New Jersey sophomore and interactive multimedia major Kyle McCabe, the Condom Ambulance will get you good and prophylactic-ed within minutes of placing your order by phone, text or Web. After a customer fills out the order form, provides an on-campus location and signs a waiver, McCabe hurries over with your order -- $3 for one condom, and up to 10 for $15 -- and discreetly slips it under your door. The website promises: you've gone from "kissing, to condoms, to sexy-time in mere seconds."

McCabe's motivation for starting the Condom Ambulance isn't purely financial, as he told his campus newspaper, the Signal.

Can Facebook promote safe sex?

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000

What exactly is Facebook good for, anyway? Investigating the college antics of the office intern, perhaps, or vetting your teenage daughter’s new boyfriend; sharing Instagrams of your toddler with the in-laws, or reminding exes how happy you are with your new man who, ahem, just surprised you with a trip to Turks and Caicos.

Public policy leaders have somewhat higher hopes, of course. They’d like to use Facebook to encourage organ donation, charity in the wake of disaster, even voter participation.

Sheana Bull would like to use it to promote safer sex.

Measure that promotes safer sex for porn workers met with controversy

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Measure B, the ordinance that will require porn workers to wear condoms in porn scenes shot in L.A. County, passed by a 56 percent majority on Tuesday. The measure also requires adult film producers to apply for a permit from the county's Department of Public Health to shoot scenes, and the permit fees will fund periodic film site inspections.

Supporters of the Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, argue that the law will promote sexual health and workplace safety. "We were extremely gratified that not only did it pass, but it passed by a wide margin," said AHF executive director Michael Weinstein. L.A. County voters "saw it quite clearly as a health, safety and fairness issue," he added.

Most of the porn industry, however, is frustrated by Measure B. Diane Duke, executive director for the Free Speech Coalition, the trade group that represents the adult entertainment industry, called Measure B "unconstitutional" in a recent statement. Porn star James Deen summed up the confusion and controversy stirred by the decision in an interview with the Daily Beast: