Adult cinema has always taken pride in ensuring the safety of its participants. What is society to think to think when those who are paid to have safe sexual intercourse cannot?
Recently there has been an outbreak of syphilis in the adult film industry, causing two adult films to cease shooting. These outbreaks have caused the nation to question whether there is such a concept as completely safe sex.
“Like anything else in life, nothing is 100 percent guaranteed,” Scott Trent, community health educator with the Guilford County Department of Public Health, told The Guilfordian.
“The rates of syphilis in Guilford County are still a cause for concern,” said Trent. “After a steady 10 year decline in rates, the number of cases in Guilford County began to increase in 2009.”
With cases beginning to rise, so does a sense of urgency.
“If people are uneducated and engage in risky behaviors, infections can spread widely and quickly,” said Professor of Sports Studies Kathleen Tritschler.
College is a new experience for so many young adults; it is important to have leaders, those who can help educate incoming and current students.
“We distribute protection, and hold programs on sexual safety,” said senior resident advisor Justin Bradley. “The main idea is just to encourage safety.”
Junior Morgan Myers, a resident advisor, has some of the same feelings about endorsing the practice of safe sex at Guilford. “I host programs that inform students on why it is important to be safe and how to do so,” said Myers. “Also, we hand out condoms and other safety products.”
Several students had opinions concerning safe sex at Guilford.
“I think people practice safe sex, but there’s probably some diseases floating around,” said junior Gideon Brown.
“I feel that students here are aware of the risks, but some are safer than others,” said sophomore John Richardson. “Students should learn that they should use protection and get tested for sexually-transmitted diseases, especially in the Greensboro area, where the rate of STDs are relatively high.”
Some members of the Guilford community do not believe safe sex is being taken as seriously as it should.
“I feel that many students do not practice safe sex on campus,” said Will Cloyd ’12.
“While I do feel that many understand safe sex and see how important it is, the fact that such encounters often occur while under the influence means that students often don’t or can’t practice safe sex.”
Cloyd agrees with Trent that there is no way to guarantee 100 percent safety during sex, though there are ways to make sexually active persons more knowledgeable and less susceptible.
“I feel that some sort of message regarding safe sex and the importance of safe sex could be worked into the FYE lab course,” said Cloyd.
Similarly, Professor of Sports Studies Kathleen Tritschler feels there is more that can be done. “The first thing is to get tested!” said Tritschler. “There are lots of people here at Guilford who are having sex with more than one partner.”
As seen in the adult film industry, having sex with more than one person while not being sexually safe can be dangerous for all parties.
