STIs and the stigmatization thereof
So according to Dr Sidney McElroy on her podcast Sawbones, people overall really didn't care about genital herpes prior to the 1970s because it's really medically insignificant. In particular, she cites an old survey on the psychological impact of STIs that didn't even bother asking about HSV.
And then two things happened: 1, pharmaceutical company Burroughs Welcome pushed an "awareness campaign" so they could sell more Acyclovir.
And 2, neoconservatives started using herpes as a menace to convince people of the badness of non-monogamy.
And now people see it as this huge thing even though it's incredibly common and not that big a deal medically.
I'm a bit angry after learning that?
Awoo.space is a Mastodon instance where members can rely on a team of moderators to help resolve conflict, and limits federation with other instances using a specific access list to minimize abuse.
While mature content is allowed here, we strongly believe in being able to choose to engage with content on your own terms, so please make sure to put mature and potentially sensitive content behind the CW feature with enough description that people know what it's about.
Before signing up, please read our community guidelines. While it's a very broad swath of topics it covers, please do your best! We believe that as long as you're putting forth genuine effort to limit harm you might cause – even if you haven't read the document – you'll be okay!