herpes witch

How can I buy your zine?

Being wary of contracting infections is understandable; exercising caution with one’s sexual health makes sense. However, there is a particular disdain reserved for illness associated with sexuality, a certain seriousness with which it’s discussed as if to justify that disdain. I and many others would argue this comes from a longstanding belief that illness is a consequence for wrong behavior, and little in our culture is considered as sinful as wrong sexual behavior.

I’m tempted by statistics, like how in the four years since my first herpes outbreak, none of my sexual partners have acquired the virus. Or the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that suggests consensually non-monogamous relationships correspond to greater numbers of partners but not higher rates of STIs when compared to monogamous relationships. But data doesn’t explain why I have as much of a right to sexual pleasure as anyone else. Data also doesn’t describe why people have decided to sleep with me out of love, lust, or whatever it was.