STD 'Influencers' Are Showing up on Social Media

When I was young we got the lecture in high school and the pamphlets or occasional talk in college about avoiding STDs. Why? Because no sane person no one wants one. I really should not have to explain why one should not want an STD. Of course, now they are known as Sexually Transmitted Infections, or STIs. I suppose that is because the word “disease” is too unsettling for the latest incarnation of young Americans, and “infection” sounds a bit more benign.

Yeah, call them sexually transmitted diseases, sexually transmitted infections, or sexually transmitted inconveniences; it’s still a good idea to avoid them. Failing to do so can result in things like overall health problems, blindness, disfigurement, and even death. But in America’s bizarre and Dali-esque last days you can do more than shout your abortion; you can also shout your STD. “Say it now and say it loud: I’m infected and I’m proud!”

According to a report in The Publica by Natasha Biase, the number of STD influencers erupting on social media is on the rise. There are people on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok (naturally) trying to convince their followers and viewers that it is fine to contract STDs, including HIV/AIDS.

To paraphrase Martha Stewart: STIs. They are good things.

The piece quoted an Instagram post from “queer” sex therapist Casey Tanner:

STIs are a part of being sexually active; most people will get one at some point in their life. Folks will physically and emotionally experience STIs in a number of different ways. How we emotionally internalize a diagnosis usually stems from the stigma that people assign to these infections.

How do you internalize a diagnosis of a disease? You seek medical help. I’d say that’s pretty cut-and-dried. But it is time to tear down that wall that forces people to take precautions or heaven forfend, abstain from something that could kill them. But health is apparently another unreasonable expectation enforced by the patriarchy.

A writer by the name of Darcy Rae said that her herpes diagnosis helped her learn to love her body. In doing so, she overcame “years of sex-shaming, and conservative and religious ideals about sex” [sic].  She continued:

The mentality of feeling ‘dirty’ because I had an  [STI] was something I had to unlearn. I had to effectively break up with myself and everything that had been instilled in me by society. I spent a lot of time reading about herpes and immersing myself in feminist material to empower me when I felt I couldn’t do it myself. Herpes helped me love my body by opening up a new relationship with sex and how I allowed other people to make me feel. [sic]

A young man who was diagnosed as HIV positive has been vlogging about living with the disease and how he has made a “blood pact” with his friends. In response, someone tweeted:

This person is 19, has HIV & thinks it’s a cute fun thing.

This is the result of the TOXIC culture that the LGBTLMNOP alphabet industry (from @glaad to @HRC) promotes to impressionable young people.

This is the culture that is SO wonderful, it should be passed on to your kids… https://t.co/t1JIkvGQKT

— Mike Harlow (@NotMikeHarlow) March 6, 2023

One young oaf tweeted, “told my therapist I went to a sex party over Pride weekend, and he started lecturing me about STDs. today’s session will be our last!”

Yeah. Let us know how well that worked out when your nose falls off.

This goes beyond the expectation that we celebrate someone’s sexuality. Now we are being told we must also celebrate the noxious outcomes of someone’s reckless behavior. We are being asked to lionize and laud a generation that is so lazy, self-absorbed, and hedonistic, and so dedicated to erasing what came before that it has become complicit in its own destruction. It is the kamikaze generation. Clearly, “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law” has become canon. The results will be predictable.