Justice

What Happened When This Woman Tried to Educate Reddit About Herpes

June 12th 2016

Last week, journalist Rafaella Gunz shared what happened when she hosted a Reddit AMA about genital HSV-1 (genital herpes) on the Tab.

Reddit AMA Herpes Reddit - reddit.com

Gunz said she hoped to educate people about the infection and address the stigma facing women living with the condition. Yet, many of the Reddit users' replies illustrated the same sexist misconceptions she wanted to debunk.

One user, whose Reddit account has since been deleted, recommended she be quarantined.

Reddit Herpes AMA Awful CommentReddit - reddit.com

Others slut-shamed her, launched personal attacks, accused her of lying, and questioned her medical knowledge.

Horrible Reddit Comment Reddit - reddit.com

Reddit Sexist Comment Reddit - reddit.com

"The sexist backlash was really frustrating," Gunz told ATTN: via email. "I've dealt with trolls before and expected to get some here and there, but the thread ended up being dominated by men just trying to deny my lived experiences and prove me 'wrong' about various things."

Reddit Slut-Shaming Comment Reddit - reddit.com

Gunz noticed something.

"It was funny because on other AMAs about medical conditions which seemed to be posted by men (like the example I used in my story of the man who got surgery on his testicle), no one questioned their medical knowledge," Gunz added. "To me this just read as further proof that women aren't taken seriously in society and often treated like they are lying or don't know what they're talking about, hence the phenomenon of 'mansplaining,' which I definitely experienced a lot of during my AMA."

Over 15 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital herpes, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Yet the infection is still largely misunderstood, joked about, and perceived as taboo.

Most people with the herpes virus do not have symptoms, and in most cases, HSV-2 is contracted when no sores or symptoms are visible. The CDC explains:

"Infections are transmitted through contact with lesions, mucosal surfaces, genital secretions, or oral secretions. HSV-1 and HSV-2 can also be shed from skin that looks normal. Generally, a person can only get HSV-2 infection during sexual contact with someone who has a genital HSV-2 infection. Transmission most commonly occurs from an infected partner who does not have visible sores and who may not know that he or she is infected. In persons with asymptomatic HSV-2 infections, genital HSV shedding occurs on 10% of days, and on most of those days the person has no signs or symptoms."

Women who open up about herpes often face sexist slut-shaming.

"I think the stigma of herpes affects both woman and men," Gunz told ATTN: over email. "However, a lot of the time with women, it can be linked to slut-shaming and victim-blaming because it's seen as 'proof' that the woman has sex and maybe 'isn't safe.'"

"The latter definitely isn't true at all," she said. "I used a condom and thought I did everything 'right,' but still contracted herpes."

Though the Reddit thread provides particularly ugly examples of these misconceptions, Gunz said she's had similar experiences offline:

"I had a friend I knew all my life who identifies as a feminist pretty much ostracize me after my diagnosis I was meant to be visiting her, but then she started telling me how she was scared of contracting it and wanted me to use toilet seat covers, lots of hand sanitizer, and not even sleep in the same bed as her, fully clothed, because she's a "cuddly sleeper" and was afraid she'd get it from me in her sleep. All of her fears were completely unfounded, and as this was right after my diagnosis, just made me feel a lot worse."

What it's like to fight the herpes stigma.

Gunz told ATTN: that she believes the sex-positivity movement should do more to include women with sexually transmitted infections.

"I think women need to be more supportive of one another to help end the stigma," she said. "Women are definitely becoming more sex-positive and open about their sexuality, but when it comes to STIs, I've noticed that many women tend to backtrack on their inclusion."

She also pointed out that sex education curriculums in the U.S. rarely address the realities of living with STIs.

"Sex education tends to be very general," she explained. "They tell you about condoms and birth control, but rarely focus on what to do if you are already living with an STI."

Though the AMA got nasty, a few users shared supportive comments.

Supportive comment reddit herpes AMAReddit - reddit.com

You can read more about the AMA and Gunz's experience on the Tab.

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