In a pandemic world where we are kept from human interaction, one can call back to another time where something similar occurred: the AIDs epidemic. Of course, AIDs and COVID are not the same but in both cases, there was, or still is, a responsibility to inform people in order to keep them safe\/healthy. However, the question remains: who actually does that, and do people listen to the warnings\/concerns when they\u2019re presented?<\/p>\n
In their article \u201cHow to Have Sex in an Epidemic,\u201d Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen look at how sex has changed due to the AIDs epidemic. They \u201cbelieve that AIDs patients have an ethical obligation to advise potential partners of their health status [\u2026 and they] believe that AIDS patients must allow their partners to make their own choice\u201d (572). This is all well and good, and people should and did do that. But patients, and their partners, are human beings who have desires and don\u2019t always want to go into their sexual histories, especially if it is the first time with a person.<\/p>\n
An interesting example of this is in Angels in America <\/em>by Tony Kushner. The play deals with many topics, one of which being AIDs and how it affects people. To Berkowitz and Callen\u2019s point, there is an interaction between Joe and Louis (Part 2, Act 1 Scene 2) where they sort of discuss the potential dangers of them having sex. Joe knows that Louis\u2019s boyfriend\/ex-boyfriend has AIDs and that makes him nervous. There are multiple times where Joe states his discomfort and yet, Louis continues to \u201cpersuade\u201d him to go further than he may be comfortable. In fact, Louis barely addresses the fact that he himself has had a sexual relationship with someone with AIDs. He has made his choice (to leave Prior and find new people to have sex with) but he doesn\u2019t give Louis as much of a choice to decide what he\u2019s comfortable with. By not having that conversation, and considering both of their comfort levels, both Louis and Joe are putting each other in danger.<\/p>\n Similarly, in the comic Dykes to Watch Out For<\/em>, the characters Lois, Mo, and Ginger discuss how much sexual history you should go into with a new partner, even if it is just a one-night stand. It is hard to know, they decide, how much to disclose but it is a conversation that should happen. Unlike the scene between Joe and Louis, later scenes in the comic show Mo and her partner, Harriet, taking the time to have that discussion, ensuring that both feel safe and comfortable to continue.<\/p>\n Sexual histories are something no one wants to go into. But in an epidemic, it is important to consider it, especially when having sex with someone new. Perhaps, the important part of the conversation isn\u2019t merely \u201cWho have you f*cked\u201d but \u201cWhat are you comfortable with so that this can be a safe and pleasant experience.\u201d Our current lives in a pandemic have reopened that conversation of people\u2019s comfort levels in order to feel safe. Yes, we are human beings with needs, and we shouldn\u2019t ignore them. But one\u2019s own safety and the safety of others should not be ignored. If that happens, one moment of joy can have catastrophic consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a pandemic world where we are kept from human interaction, one can call back to another time where something similar occurred: the AIDs epidemic. Of course, AIDs and COVID are not the same but in both cases, there was, or still is, a responsibility to inform people in order to keep them safe\/healthy. However, … Continue reading Who Have You F*cked? An Awkward, but Necessary Conversation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4638,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqhistoryandliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}