Illigitimi non carborundu
October 16, 2008
When I’m thinking about herpes I’m not worrying about outbreaks, I’m worrying about telling people. In my anatomy class we’ve recently discussed herpes, and now it seems like it’s all people want to talk about. Almost everytime we have a class the teacher asks who has genital herpes, wants them to raise their hand in front of the whole class. It’s become a big joke, trying to embarass people by asking if they have genital herpes. He’s even offered extra credit for someone to admit to it. According to the statistics I’ve seen there are at least 6 people in that room that have it, me included, yet not one person has raised their hand. I think maybe next time I will. If someone else had then I definitely would have too. It’s that whole strength in numbers mentality. But you know what? I don’t think it’s ok for them to shame me for a medical condition, it’s not like they’d make fun of someone with frostbite. But both are conditions acquired by the choices that somebody made. They may have thought that they were adequately protected for their activity of choice, but instead they got a nasty surprise when they realized they hadn’t taken everything into account. Yet you can almost guarantee that the frostbite victim would receive way more sympathy than anyone with a nasty STD. Ewwwww! Stay away or you might catch it.
I wonder if it will at least stop them from talking about it like a joke if they know I have it.
