“...doctors say that the real damage of getting herpes is from the social stigma, not the actual disease itself. Which is ridiculous.”

Maybe I’ve met some cool people, but I never had a problem in that regard. One guy went “hmmmmm” and I called it of because it just wasn’t worth it but everyone else I told was totally unfussed. I don’t know if maybe this has anything to do with living and dating in London where people tend to be 1) pretty blase about…

Herpes is really just a skin condition, it’s not like you can’t “live a full life” even if you’re totally unmedicated. Outbreaks vary from person to person. Many people never ever have symptoms, there are tons of people walking around who are positive for HSV and do not know it. The tests are not terribly reliable and…

Yup! and happily married for 5 years.

All of these are very good points, but they derail from the initial point being made. If we stop freaking out about STIs and focus on getting people on more effective treatment regiments then everyone will be better off. This includes people in different privilege groups who may have difficulty accessing those…

“Privileged”? Give me a fucking break. The point is that herpes isn’t quite the life-ending plague that its stigma implies. Yes, life is easier for people with easier lives, and bad things can happen to people in disproportionate ways. Welcome to reality. But the point still stands. You only do harm to your (likely…

Thanks for keeping our White Privilege in check, you made a real difference today in our celeb gossip discussion.

If I wanted to be instantly flamed, I would suggest she might not get married or have a LTR not because she has an STI but because she’s a filer of post-coital lawsuits, which some men do not find particularly attractive.

blame big pharma, I cant remember the name of the company but they developed a treatment and basically marketed the treatment by stigmatizing herpes.

It’s a great litmus test for seeing whether a person is irrational or not.

As someone with HSV 1 - it’s bananas how much the social stigma is in your own mind. Basically the upside is you can easily root out people not worth your time for a long term relationship.

This is so stupid. My initial thoughts:

Can people stop freaking the fuck out about herpes? One in six Americans has genital herpes. It’s absurdly common, very treatable, and once on Valtrex, the vast majority of people with the disease have extremely rare outbreaks or even none at all after contracting it.

I understand your point, and I think it’s an interesting philosophical and medical discussion to have as to whether this is just how mental illness manifests in some people. But I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is not new, or unusual, and the vast majority of people who would dismiss this…

In this very comment section, people are writing about how she is probably more educated in business than a person with an actual business degree. That she has more “real-life” business experience than people who studied business. These are the “most lucrative years of her life,” they say. People are delusionally…

THANK YOU.

I like more masculine, rugged looking men myself so I have to agree with you. James Deen looks like such a dork. How anyone finds him attractive is a mystery to me.

That’s exactly how I feel. I’d love to know how my (sex) life would have been different if the culture hadn’t been pushing fantasies of my own submission and violation on me since before I even knew what sex was.

Right on. This “I choose my choice” brand of feminism is perfectly unhelpful. Nobody is saying you’re not allowed to like what you like, but when they suggest that maybe you like something that you wouldn’t like had it not been for the toxic culture you’ve soaked up since birth, they’re not passing judgement on you as…

And she had a great line of “I don’t judge individuals but let’s say I am suspicious of how many dudes have fantasies that align perfectly with existing patriarchal norms.”