“Don’t have sex because you will get pregnant and die.”
I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve heard this, not only from the health teacher in Mean Girls, but also from my parents and various other health administrators.
There’s also the saying that the best form of protection from pregnancy is abstinence.
But I think we’re all observant enough to understand that, in our society, it’s fairly impossible for some people not to have sex. So, if you aren’t going to be abstinent, how are you going to protect yourself from the threat of STI’s and unplanned pregnancy?
Back in 1839, a man by the name of Charles Goodyear started the production of rubber for contraceptive means. At this time, men had to be fitted by their doctor for a condom.
Even before then, condoms were common in Shakespeare’s day. These condoms were hand-sewn pieces of linen with a drawstring ribbon, which held the condom onto the penis during sex.
Now that times have changed, and contraceptives are much more accessible, why aren’t people using them more?
A lot of people tell me they hate condoms because they don’t think they’re as pleasurable. But it’s a fine line you begin to straddle: when is it appropriate to sacrifice protection for pleasure?
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t use a condom. Most people drop the condom crusade once they maintain a monogamous relationship. But I can’t help notice there’s still the issue of pregnancy, even if you know your partner is disease free.
In 2010, CBC reported that teen pregnancy rates in Canada have dropped by 37 per cent in the recent decade. I come from a town that once had the highest teen pregnancy rate in Ontario.
Many people joked that it was simply because there was nothing else better to do in our town than have unprotected sex. I simply thought it was sad that a majority of our peers just didn’t think to wrap it up.
In reality, no matter how many statistics you throw out there, people will still have unprotected sex. You can only hope they don’t end up with the Carleton clap. q
Editor’s note: Robin S. Cherry is not the author’s real name. It is an alias for a current Carleton undergraduate student.
