This is a guest post from Rachael from Just In Case Inc. More information follows the post.
I am awake in a quiet house thinking about Mother’s Day and all it means to be a mother and a daughter. What we pound into our daughters heads, what we forget to tell them, and what we let other people tell them…
How as daughters, we listen to what we want to hear, quietly store away the things we don’t want to hear, and learn over the years to quiet that naive yet all too loud voice of our egos…
I am a daughter, in business with my mother, and a mother raising my young daughter…
My mom and I have a passion for young women and inspiring them to take care of themselves when it comes to their sexual health. The statistics are staggering in this country and we were compelled to do something about it. Since I was a makeup artist and my mom a voice over actress, we decided to challenge the issue of HIV/AIDS and STD’s through trend. We created a product called JUST IN CASE to give women a beautiful, chic way to carry their own protection. Condoms usually have a shelf life of 10 years…you can carry your protection for a planned or a spur of the moment rendezvous-vous with your partner and you will be in control of your sexual health.
Of course abstinence of ALL sexual activity will stop the spread of HIV and STDs, but let’s stay in reality for a moment. Sex doesn’t just refer to the act of penetration…you can contract STDs through other sexual acts. If a guy has an STD (who may not know it or show any symptoms) and “all I’m doing is giving him a blow job”… you can contract an STD in your mouth that could possibly lead to throat cancer… Heard of HPV (Human Papillomavirus)? That’s what Guardisil is helping to prevent… it helps to prevent HPV which can cause cervical cancer but what the drug companies are quiet about is that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease.
Many people still believe that HIV is a gay disease or that you have to engage in very high risk sexual behavior or drug use to be infected… I’m sorry to say that all it takes is to have unprotected sex with someone who is infected who may not even know they are infected. The symptoms of HIV in the beginning usually aren’t very much more than a bad cold, and they will be the most contagious in the first 6 months of contracting the virus. HIV is one of the leading causes of death for young black women in the US…that is unacceptable to me and more importantly, WHY AREN’T WE TALKING ABOUT IT? We are in the midst of the swine flu – of the many people that have been infected, only a handful have died and you can’t watch the news for an hour without a story on the spread of the virus. On the flipside, millions of people have HIV and we can’t even advertise condoms on national television!!! Then I read this in another blog… “90 people get the swine flu and everyone is wearing masks, millions of people have AIDS but no one wears a condom.”
We can change this!!!!
If you are sexually active and you don’t know your status or your partners status FOR SURE (I’m talking a date to the clinic here) then use a condom. You are protecting yourself and your partner.
With any message filled with scary statistics and doomsday outcomes, read the hope between the lines… AIDS can be prevented… STDs can be prevented. Through knowledge, self-respect, smarter choices, we can slow the spread of all sexually transmitted diseases to a near halt. Know your status, know your partners status, and if you don’t, or you’re unsure, use a condom.
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Rachael Sudul is the daughter of the Mother/Daughter duo who runs the Just in Case Inc. company that reinforces the importance of women having control regarding their sexual health. You can find her on Twitter and be sure to check out their new blog as well!
