The race for Republican nomination has been interesting, to say the least, and some of it, in my opinion, has been quite inflammatory. Now, it seems that some candidates have decided to focus on Gov. Perry’s support for mandatory HPV vaccinations for young girls. Michelle Bachmann, in particular, has been focusing her efforts in making incredibly false claims about the vaccination and its purpose. In response, writer Ayelet Waldman went to Twitter and talked about how she had gotten HPV from her husband to show how common it is to have it (about 60% of female students are infected with HPV sometime during their four years at college,) and to make it clear how important it is to get the vaccine at an early age. This created a huge uproar on twitter, and she received many responses telling her that she was sharing way too much information, that she should be quiet about it, and even that getting HPV was a punishment for being a “slut”. This is a great example of sex negativity, and it’s extremely detrimental for all young people. If talking about sex and STIs is too taboo for even the internet, it creates a negative attitude that will stop young people from seeking help or information about safe sex or STIs because of it being too embarrassing.
One thing the Women’s Center tries to do is promote a sex positive attitude all over campus while providing information on how to be safe and healthy about it. It’s really important to have resources about safe sex, STI testing, and birth control information, and the Women’s Center is certainly a great one. After all, if there is one thing that most people around the Ramapo campus know about the WC, it’s that we always have condoms.
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