Have you seen this?

http://health.newsvine.com/_news/2010/11/12/5456235-hpv-shot-dilemma-should-gay-boys-be-targeted#comments

I think the chosen language is......something, but if you really want to be entertained, you should read all the comments. The contributors swing fairly widely from wholesale agreement to base disgust. The disgust reactions are my personal favorites as the reasons are all so bizarre. Some disagree based on the "fact" that vaccines are all bunk, some because we shouldn't be trying to save people who engage in anal sex, some because it opposes abstinence teachings.

I generally disagree with all of them. It is physically much more risky to have anal sex than vaginal for a very simple reason. The anus is not a self-lubricating orifice. Causing friction and stretching to an orifice that is not self-lubricating causes tears. Tears invite infection. It's literally that simple.

You might think (me being Christian and all) that I have something against anal sex. You'd be wrong, I quite enjoy it. I also don't care about the millions of gay guys out there having anal sex because, hey, that's their business, and if I like it so much, why shouldn't they? Why shouldn't anybody? I'm a huge fan of sex and while I think it pays to be careful (both with your body and your emotions) I could never hold having lots of sex against anyone. I'd most likely be doing it myself if I weren't married. It's that fun.

I'm not a huge subscriber to the current varieties of abstinence training because I think they, like all other forms of sex education, fail miserably to give complete information. I believe that if we made sure people were better informed of the risks they would be better able to make safer decisions for themselves. How many people out there know that there are STD's against which condoms are useless? How many people know (in real numbers) what the failure rates of birth control are? How many people know what STD's actually LOOK like? I love the idea of safe sex, unfortunately, liking the idea doesn't make it realistic. It's not, it's a myth. They should call it Safer Sex, or Less Risky Sex or something like that. Because SAFE? That's something it will never be.


I especially loved the comments by parents stating that they wouldn't get their kids vaccinated since their kids weren't having sex yet. I had to giggle, even though it was rude. How the hell do you know? My kid isn't yet 10 and the best I can do is "I'm pretty sure he is not yet having any kind of sexual contact." Granted, he is with adult supervision 98% of the time, but boys in school bathrooms have been known to do weird and unexplainable things for, I don't know, forever. I could be totally wrong. In my case, I would vaccinate him, if I could afford it at the moment. I could explain to him a million times over how dangerous physical contact of a sexual nature can be, but if so many adults I know can't control their hormones (me included), how fair is it for me to expect him to? I'm already fairly certain that he engages in some form of masturbation (perfectly healthy and normal) so I'm sure trying to touch someone else isn't that far off.

It blows my mind how many people there are out there that just HAVE to assign some kind of moral meaning to a vaccine designed to prevent cancer. HPV certainly isn't the first virus to cause cancer and I doubt it will be the last. I don't think the vaccine will give kids a feeling of freedom to have sex, or at least any more than they already have. Education prepares kids for life, it follows that education should prepare them for sex too, given that sex is a part of life and basically everyone has sex. The parent population certainly should be spending more time making sure that sex education is at a high standard, but we should also be putting more effort into teaching our kids to respect their own bodies (which are truly a gift from God), the bodies of other people (same), and sex in general(also a great gift). If you want to get your moral panties in a wad, pick something worthwhile, like the clothes they market to little girls or the current lack of decent role models in the world. Or better yet, why so many parents aren't trying to BE those role models.

I wish they could come up with vaccines for lots of diseases. If they figured out how to vaccinate AIDS I would jump for joy. I'd love to see Leukemia eradicated. And, oddly enough, I've seen parents who were totally against vaccines crumble in the face of a sick kid. It's different when it's your family on the line, when the person suffering is dear to you.

On that note, I just have to say that I'm glad that I'm married (not that married sex is necessarily safe sex either. I'm not stupid.) and that I can be perfectly slutty, promiscuous, kinky and weird in the (relatively) safe borders of that relationship. I'm glad that I have reached an age that seems to have come with clarified morals, and a better sense of what's really important in life. I am glad that I have learned not to judge people, and that I now know that we are all the same, both in God's eyes and in our own reality, even if we choose not to see it. I'm glad for a lot of things, but mostly at the moment, I'm glad I don't know any of the people who commented on that article.