No regrets?
The latest NSW Health ‘safe sex’ campaign really makes my blood boil. The ads have been running on our televisions since 28 February, and they finished airing late April. The slogan of the campaign is “Safe sex. No regrets”. The campaign brochure tells us that safe sex = using condoms and/or a range of other things during sex to “reduce the risk of catching or passing on STIs (sexually transmitted infections) or HIV”. If you do this, you will have “no regrets”.
So, essentially what they are saying is that sex is a purely physical activity. It doesn't affect your emotions or your long-term wellbeing except, of course, if you end up with some unwanted infection (and I notice that pregancy is listed—in between HIV and STIs—as one of the undesirable things safe sex can help to prevent). As long as you can prevent that, then you can have plenty of sex and you'll have no regrets.
Is this a joke? I can't believe this is seriously what our government wants to teach our youth (and since the pictures in the TV ad and the brochure are all of 20-30-year-olds, I assume that's who they are targetting with this message). In the entire campaign, there is no mention of the non-physical negative effects of sex—things like low self-esteem, inability to trust people, sex becoming meaningless, people not treating each other with respect, extremely painful relationship breakups, etc. Are these things not worth preventing too?
Safe sex. No regrets? I doubt it.
To view the television ad, read the brochure, or see more info, visit the campaign website.
You can also write to the NSW Health Minister (details here) if it makes you as angry as it makes me.