Oral fixation

So I was reading the Star a few days ago, and was promoted to write a letter to the editor. Which issue so drove me that I was prompted to put fingers to keyboards? Issues of terrorism, nationally important policies? Nay. Oral sex.


In the March 30 article entitled “Oral sex is as risky and intimate as any other,” Vanessa Chris appears to suggest that intercourse is a preferable alternative to oral sex. Intercourse, according to the article “can still be fun with someone you don't know” while claiming that it is “tough to really enjoy oral sex and not feel insecure with a stranger.” In contrast to the “awkwardness” of the oral variety, sex is described as “easier” and takes “less effort or embarrassment.” Most curiously, Chris states, “What I am saying is that there is something wrong with thinking casual oral sex is somehow safer...than intercourse.”


Clearly, engaging in oral sex is associated with transmission of some STDs. But it is also clear that unprotected oral sex is substantially safer than protected or unprotected intercourse. Transmission of STDs through oral sex is a fraction of the problem of sexually transmitted diseases. Exaggerating the dangers of oral sex may have a negative effect on sexual health messages by de-emphasizing the more serious problems, particularly use of condoms during intercourse. Suggesting that oral sex should be avoided in favour of intercouse flies in the face of logic.


The reason Chris doesn’t suggest dental dams for other sexual activities like kissing (which carries risks of hepatitis B and C, meningitis, herpes, SARS, etc.), I suspect, has more to do with her (and society’s) perception of sex than the magnitude of the risks involved. The message here is that oral sex is an “icky” activity that should be feared and avoided. Chris is letting the language of “risk” stand in for the old discourses about morality and chastity for young women. Is it just by accident that the two of the three articles on STDs focus on the “deviant” sexual behaviour of heterosexual young women and almost completely ignores males and the homosexual community?


The series of articles on STDs does bring up some important and vital information, but I hope next time it can be done without the exploitive and sensationalistic presentation.