[BRIEF NOTE] Why Barebacking Is In
Nov. 11th, 2005 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldYesterday, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
qu33rboi wrote about the disturbing prevalence of bareback sex in gay porn. The North American gay porn industry, unlike its heterosexual counterpart, has required condom use from the mid-1980s on, with the exception of some niche producers. The new generation of bareback porn, it seems, comes from the former Soviet bloc, which, as is well known, is currently outpacing North America in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As one commenter noted, without any regulation of the porn industry aspiring porn actors in the former Soviet Union have to agree to unprotected sex. This will be horrible for them, years down the line; for wealthy viewers, there's no immediate drawbacks.
The apparent impending repetition of the 1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic in North America and western Europe in the former Soviet bloc, the former Soviet Union especially, is one of those horribly tragic things that no one seems interested in stopping, or able to stop. Yes, I can definitely confirm that barebacking is common among Torontonian gay and bisexual men. For many, it's just another sexual alternative. For some, it's the only permissible one.
This negligence is hardly unique to gay and bisexual men in the early 21st century. Consider the shockingly high rate of maternal mortality for women in the pre-antibiotics age demonstrated in one 1986 paper.
One in forty women giving birth in the late 18th century died, immediately, as a direct result of heterosexual intercourse. And yet, the human species has happily more than reproduced itself, Britain's population growing sixfold. Is anyone surprised that, with surprising low rates for HIV seroconversion (less than one chance in a hundred, if you are the receptive partner in anal sex with someone who is HIV positive), a lag time measurable in years before AIDS develops, and new medicines which can slow down the progression towards AIDS, people are willing to take stupid risks?
qu33rboi wrote about the disturbing prevalence of bareback sex in gay porn. The North American gay porn industry, unlike its heterosexual counterpart, has required condom use from the mid-1980s on, with the exception of some niche producers. The new generation of bareback porn, it seems, comes from the former Soviet bloc, which, as is well known, is currently outpacing North America in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As one commenter noted, without any regulation of the porn industry aspiring porn actors in the former Soviet Union have to agree to unprotected sex. This will be horrible for them, years down the line; for wealthy viewers, there's no immediate drawbacks.The apparent impending repetition of the 1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic in North America and western Europe in the former Soviet bloc, the former Soviet Union especially, is one of those horribly tragic things that no one seems interested in stopping, or able to stop. Yes, I can definitely confirm that barebacking is common among Torontonian gay and bisexual men. For many, it's just another sexual alternative. For some, it's the only permissible one.
This negligence is hardly unique to gay and bisexual men in the early 21st century. Consider the shockingly high rate of maternal mortality for women in the pre-antibiotics age demonstrated in one 1986 paper.
The rate [of maternal mortality] lay between 4 and 5 per 1000 [women in childbirth] until 1935, with the advent of sulfa antibiotics to prevent puerperal infections. The practice of midwifery by men began in the early 17th century in Britain, but attendance at normal labors by medical practitioners, that is, surgeon-apothecaries, did not become common, and then only in urban areas, until 1730. The use of forceps became widely known about that time, and lying-in hospitals were begun. Obstetrics was held in contempt by professionally educated and registered physicians and apothecaries, however, because of the immodesty and messiness of the work and the long hours involved. Estimates of maternal mortality, from the 1st recorded unselected series, in the late 18th century range from 5-29/1000. Some of the high figures are from specialists in obstetrics, who treated complicated cases. From these data the maternal death rate was estimated at about 25/1000 among unassisted women.
One in forty women giving birth in the late 18th century died, immediately, as a direct result of heterosexual intercourse. And yet, the human species has happily more than reproduced itself, Britain's population growing sixfold. Is anyone surprised that, with surprising low rates for HIV seroconversion (less than one chance in a hundred, if you are the receptive partner in anal sex with someone who is HIV positive), a lag time measurable in years before AIDS develops, and new medicines which can slow down the progression towards AIDS, people are willing to take stupid risks?
