7 ms·
Here's a novel thought: Monogamy. Wait to have sex until you're married, then have only one sexual partner your entire life. That'll deal with the problem, and
by milesf 10y ago
Here's a novel thought: Monogamy. Wait to have sex until you're married, then have only one sexual partner your entire life. That'll deal with the problem, and every other sexually transmitted disease out there.
It's almost too simple to work, but I've heard that over time - thousands of years in fact - it is a strategy humans have used to build not just safe sex, but many other benefits as well http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-power-of-monogamy-10-surprising-claims-regarding-modern-love/article16099482/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/the-power-...
- astrodust 10y agoSuch a Hacker News answer. This is embarrassing.
- milesf 10y agoYou didn't detect the note of humour in my comment? :)
- astrodust 10y agoI'm claiming Poe's Law here. This is such a neckbeard response it's ridiculous. "If nobody ever had sex we'd wipe out STDs within a generation!"
- Maskawanian 10y agoAnd then you find that you are sexually incompatible with the person you married.
- milesf 10y agoI guess I lucked out, as well as a good number of my friends and colleagues.
- astrodust 10y agoClearly you live on some other planet where people don't have sex before marriage, or they're just quick to deny such a thing ever happened. Get tested and play safe. Marriage has nothing to do with it.
- burgreblast 10y agoAnecdata here, but...I live on this planet, have an awesome spouse, great kids, etc. It's seriously wonderful to be monogamous. For me, at least, marriage has _everything_ to do with it.
- astrodust 10y agoYou're confusing pre-marital sex with monogamy.
- milesf 10y ago> Clearly you live on some other planet where people don't have sex before marriage I admit that I really don't belong here in this world. I'll give you that. Was I a virgin before I married? No. But when I learned about the facts of sexually transmitted diseases back in 1990, I chose to stop. After that, I got tested twice for STD's: once when I started dating a girl in 1993 who I was serious with, and knew that if I married her she needed to know if I had contracted anything (I was clean, but we parted ways), and once more before I married in 2000 (just double-checking. No STD's). Still, I haven't seen one response to my comment from anyone else that can explain why monogamy won't work to stop gonorrhea. Why people are so up-in-arms in this comment thread about another person's personal choice seems silly to me. You are free to do whatever you want! I'm not going to stop you. But, we all have to live with the consequences of those choices. I made my choice. Sorry that so many of you seem to be offended by that, but I really don't care what you think of me. I guess I have to spend my hacker news karma on something :)
- sk5t 10y agoIs drug abuse a problem in your country? Maybe you should try banning them, with harsh penalties for offenders. Easy!
- milesf 10y agoIt's a personal choice. Frankly I am okay with all drugs being legal as well. It's not going to sway my decision not to use them.
- lostlogin 10y agoThat sounds fairly Puritan. How do you define "drug"? That's the bit that matters. Alcohol? Caffeine? Theobromine? Somewhere in your diet and routine is something that meets someones definition of "drug" but not yours.
- tingol 10y agoHe said legal.
- lostlogin 10y agoThe question stands, what is a drug?
- milesf 10y agoAll drugs. Cocaine, marijuana, heroin, you name it. Legislation doesn't work, it only creates black markets that jack the price up and fund the less scrupulous elements of our society. Is _that_ an answer for you?
- lostlogin 10y agoNo. I agree that legislation doesn't work. You stated you don't take drugs, and I asked how you define "drug". Caffeine et al can easily be classified as drugs.
- benmarks 10y agoIt's so easy, everyone's doing it. Wait...
- ksenzee 10y agoNobody ever cheats on their spouse, so this is guaranteed to work.
- DINKDINK 10y agoA bit impracticle given real world data shows that "About 60 percent of men and 40 percent of women will have an affair at some point in some marriage "Monogamy Myth", Therapist Peggy Vaugn" aka ~50% of couples who think they are monogamous are actually non monogamous (non consensually)
- milesf 10y agoWell, it works well for me. 16 years married, and I have never cheated. In fact most of my friends and colleagues have been married a long time, including my friend Irving. He and his wife have been married for 70 years (they're both 92). The percentages are meaningless when we're talking personal choice. It is a valid way of avoiding STD's, and a choice I made back in 1990 when I was 20.
- dogma1138 10y agoNot to be a downer, but you've only effectively lived 1/3rd of your life, not to mention is that you aren't the only partner in your relationship. Monogamy may work, safe sex pretty much always work :) Most people not only not getting married at 20 if at all these days, they are also having sex at an earlier age. GL telling 16 year olds to wait, I wasn't going to get married in high school, and I had no intention of waiting then or even with hindsight now.
- milesf 10y agoSafe sex pretty much always works...riiiiight. Condoms never break. I remember the term safe sex back in the late 80's. Then the term was changed to safer sex. So let's say you're going to have sex with a person and just before you start to get it on they say "oh, by the way, I have AIDS". Are you still going to have sex with them?
- nommm-nommm 10y ago>these days, they are also having sex at an earlier age. This is untrue. We have the most prude generation right now. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-millennials-less-sex-20160802-snap-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-millennials-...
- HisGraceTheDuck 10y agoThat's true and if it works for you that's great. Getting preachy about it isn't going to win you friends or change anyone's mind.
- milesf 10y agoPreachy? Seriously? I am not here to change minds or win friends. I'm 47. I respect a person's right to believe whatever they want, all I ask is they respect my right to believe whatever I want. Yes, it does work for me and many other people, and it's a legitimate way to avoid gonorrhea and all other STD's including chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis, HIV, human papillomavirus, syphilis, and all other STD/STI's.
- wtbob 10y agoYup, pretty much. STDs are unavoidable, given promiscuity: there's just too much going on for diseases not to evolve and spread.
- dogma1138 10y agoHere's a novel thought: USE A CONDOM.
- SwellJoe 10y agoNo, thank you. That is not a novel thought. It is as old as religion. Abstinence based sex education has been shown to be ineffective, leading to greater pregnancy and STI transmission. Evidence says your idea won't help. And, well, it's also boring. I'll take my chances with responsible non-monogamy.
- milesf 10y agoGo for it, man. Do whatever you want. I respect a person's right to believe anything they want, all I ask is they respect my right to believe whatever I want. I did both. Have a look at other responses I gave in this thread. As far as AbEd education, who cares. I never listened to that stuff back in the 80's, and now we have the Internet, so we've got all the information.
- SwellJoe 10y agoWe're talking about a looming public health crisis; your and my personal choices aren't particularly relevant to that. Evidence says telling people to be monogamous to avoid STIs does not work.
- milesf 10y agoNonsense. Public health is the cumulative sum of all our personal choices. This is especially true with STI's.
- whyenot 10y agoHuman testes are much larger than one would expect in a truly monogamous primate[1]. Approximately 85% of all human cultures are polygamous and not monogamous[2]. 1. Google "Harcourt testes 1981" and read the Nature article. 2. According to the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, a scholarly catalog of world cultures.
- lostlogin 10y agoHave a read up on abstinence education programs and read up on their stats.
- milesf 10y agoWho cares! I remember listening to abed stuff back in the 80's, and chose to have sex anyway. As I mentioned in another comment, in 1990 I heard about the _science_ behind sexually transmitted diseases and chose to stop.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jpt4 10y agoThe most straightforward answer is not guaranteed to be the most implementable, especially when it relies on co-ordination power. However, various people behave variously, and there exist those for whom "a twenty mile run at night" is entirely within their power [0]. [0] Commentary on the differing preferred escape strategies of Frederick Burnham and Winston Churchill. https://read.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus https://read.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThe problem is when people don't have sex before marriage they tend to get married to have sex. Then instead of having a heartbreak and moving on they are caught in a miserable marriage.