Seattle-based safe sex educators Lifelong AIDS Alliance takes an unorthodox approach.
A Slog reader explains that volunteers passed out condoms, lube and this potentially disastrous message: “Condoms and Crystal go together.” As Dan Savage notes, a New Yorker article blew the lid off such myths back in 2005:
Crystal methamphetamine is highly addictive, but its allure is not hard to understand; the drug removes inhibitions, bolsters confidence, supercharges the libido… The first thing people on methamphetamine lose is their common sense; suddenly, anything goes, including unprotected anal sex…
Savage goes on to note:
This isn’t the first time LLAA has wrapped crystal meth use up in images of gay pride and community in a misguided effort to “de-stigmatize” crystal meth use–an activity which, when you consider the consequences for individuals and the gay community as a whole, gay health organizations should be working harder to stigmatize.
An image of condom packet walking hand-in-hand with a rock of crystal will not reach men that are currently using crystal–most of whom abuse crystal meth to annihilate their inhibitions and engage in casual unprotected anal sex–while communicating to men that aren’t using crystal that they can “safely” use the drug and “FUCK without fear.”
Such an image shouldn’t reach anyone, if you ask us…
Dawster
well, i have to say that it IS an improvement over the “buy meth – get AIDS free” posters. this is reminiscent of the old “condoms in the boys’ bathroom in high school” argument.
the fault with this ad (and Savage for that matter) is the assumption is that (1) everyone who does meth gets the same “increased libido” reaction to the drug, (2) everyone who does meth also only fucks bareback, and (3) people who do meth use it to annihilate their inhibitions.
of course, NONE of these things are true all of the time. like every other drug, 20% of the people who try it had an adverse reaction to it, 20% of the people are instantly addicted to it, and 60% of the people are partying somewhere in the middle.
in this case, it’s speed – it won’t conjure something that’s not there. if you think self worth is achieved through being sexually attractive and if you’re lonely and void of true intimacy in your life, then you’re going to act like it… ON SPEED. otherwise your reaction won’t be the increased libido… it will be different, and non-sexual.
this is advertisement that caters to 1/5 to 1/3 of the 25% of the gay population who have TRIED meth and whatever percentage of those that have the “supercharged libido” reaction to the drug. Meanwhile the rest of us go, “huh?” and go about our lives now secure in the fact that our blanket assumptions about sex and drugs are actually correct.
Leland Frances
While reaction to meth may be different from person to person, and campaigns to help those who have used it whose responsible judgment becomes severely impaired/addicted need to be a little more sophisticated to be successful than “Bad Queen, Bad!”, every treatment professional agrees that the best advice is: “Don’t start period.”
The Apologia Pro Tina of “none of these things are true all the time” could be equally applied to saying, “Not everyone is HIV+ and even for those who are, barebacking doesn’t ALWAYS result in infection of an HIV- bottom, so fuck on,” and would be just as CRACKed!
Dawster
the niche campaign is geared to only one group of people. that one group gets divided into two sections, those who think the ad is applicable but silly, and those that do not think the ad applies to them at all.
what’s left out is the idea of giving homosexuals the MENTAL tools to deal/cope/handle life responsibly (regardless if it includes the use of drugs, sex, alcohol, or whatever).
there are way too many people out there that get talked into bareback sex when drugs are not even part of the picture (or part of the ManHunt ad). this minute detail-specific ad displays forgets the group as a whole.
you and i get to pass by it and form our opinions… as does everyone else in the whole freaking world… meanwhile, the people who it could REALLY help are laughing themselves silly.
Leland Frances
What’s left IN is the message to impressionable kids just emerging into a gay world that already sends them to many other messages bad for their mental and/or physical health that a respected gay HIV/AIDS health agency is announcing that Tina is OK and that’s FUCKED in the bad way!@
Period.
mike
Why is it so geared at anal sex ?
Should be aimed at sex period, no?
SeaFlood
I am SO tired of “for the children” arguments! Gay children these days are a LOT more savvy than we are! Also, the group that is seroconverting the most is NOT those children everyone is so worried about, but gay men between 30-40. Impressionable kids? Impressionable adults!
Given that adults are impressionable and bodies go and attitudes towards aging within our communities, I have to say I rather agree with Dawster. We have to give impressionable adults, who may have condom fatigue to go along with falling rates of self-esteem and confidence alongside a diminished sense of self-perceived sexual prowess mental devices to deal with the world that is out there. Better… BETTER… that guys who are using meth are getting the message that condom use is still the deal and getting it drummed into them than nothing is said (or worse, we stigmatize that section of our community and watch as the epidemic goes haywire in our communities — that’s just stupid… and one of the reasons why I think Savage should stick to sex and leave socio-cultural analysis for those equip to do it) and they do the meth AND have the condomless sex.
Besides, most of the guys I have come into contact with who have used meth said, almost across the board, that they used it because they weren’t comfortable with their sexuality as homosexual men. — as gay men.
hisurfer
I’m usually for in-your face advertising for HIV & drug issues, I believe in free-choice regarding drug use, and agree with Leland that the “Don’t do drugs you bad boy” approach isn’t very effective.
And yet this advertising bothers me. I fucking hate meth. I hate what it’s done to our community, and what it’s done to friends of mine – and so I hate this ad for making it seem kind of cute and edgy.
Most meth-users I know were sex freaks for a very brief period of time, and then their libido dies almost completely. And so I doubt that this ad will be very effective at encouraging condom use, and suspect that it will help legitimize crystal among users.
SeaFlood
*snort* You must not know Seattle…