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I don’t think that’s what they meant by “barrier method”

Jill

Well this is a great idea.

An informal survey found that almost half — 22 of 50 — of the District’s CVS pharmacies lock up their condoms — this in a city where one in 20 residents is HIV-positive. Most of those stores are in less affluent areas where the incidence of HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy — all preventable with condoms — are highest. Many CVS stores in the close-in Prince George’s County suburbs also lock up condoms.

The Duane Reed in my neighborhood also locks its condoms behind a giant iron gate at night. Smart, right?

Christine Spencer-Grier, director of community education at Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, has seen that firsthand. She helps run a program that assists teen mothers in avoiding another pregnancy. One of the program’s projects has the young moms venture out to buy condoms and report back on their experiences.

Spencer-Grier said many come back talking of being too embarrassed to buy once they saw they would have to ask for help. Others reported that, when they asked a salesperson for assistance, they got dirty looks or a lecture about being too young for sex.

“Teens are very sensitive to a disparaging look, a lecture — all of those things are very intimidating,” said Spencer-Grier. Many girls, she said, left the stores ashamed and empty-handed — but still likely to have sex.

Of course they are. If someone is going to a drug store, especially after normal business hours when the pharmacy is closed (at the drug stores near me, the condoms are only locked after the pharmacist leaves for the day), they’re probably planning on having sex — and soon.

The usual suspects, of course, are glad that people aren’t able to get the condoms they need. Because if you have sex, you deserve to die of AIDS.

Citizens for Community Values — which promotes abstinence as the answer to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies — applauds adding steps to buying condoms.

“I’d rather see them locked up,” said Phil Burress, president of the organization. “It’s a lie that condoms prevent all sexually transmitted diseases anyway. People should be educated about that and practice abstinence.”

Yes, it’s all a big lie. Except, wait, no one ever said that condoms prevent all sexually transmitted diseases in all circumstances. But 97% efficacy when used correctly? I’ll take that.

Locking up condoms may be a legitimate theft-prevention method, but what does it mean when condoms are one of the most commonly-stolen articles — apparently along with pregnancy tests and baby formula? That, perhaps, lower-income people aren’t getting the reproductive and family-care services they need? (Sidenote: I’m not trying to imply that only low-income people shoplift; but these seem to be items that are stolen out of necessity and not simple desire, which infers, to me, that the people taking them are hardly doing it for fun, but because they can’t afford them otherwise). The answer isn’t locking up condoms. It’s making sure that people have the disease-prevention methods that they need, affordably and easily.

39 thoughts on I don’t think that’s what they meant by “barrier method”

  1. but these seem to be items that are stolen out of necessity and not simple desire, which infers, to me, that the people taking them are hardly doing it for fun, but because they can’t afford them otherwise

    I’m more inclined to believe that condoms are stolen because people are unwilling to look the cashier in the eye and full-blown admit that they’re planning on fucking. Goes back to social shame.

  4. They’ve been locking up the condoms in Texas for years. I wonder what better ways there are of addressing the theft problem: putting the condoms behind the counter? That’s still embarrassing and opens one up to lectures. Near the counter, so shoplifters could be seen by the cashier? Less public, but less secure. A vending machine? Probably not cost-effective.

    Pregnancy tests and baby formula are popular items for large-scale shoplifting gangs, so I wouldn’t put too much weight on their inclusion on the most-stolen list.

  5. Sorry to be a dick about it, but I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who are afraid to ask for condoms. Even when they’re unlocked, you gotta slide ’em over to the Walgreen’s cashier for scanning in front of everybody; not a huge difference. Maybe it would be better to focus on correcting people’s shame factor versus worrying about the drugstore’s practice. You can’t expect a store to leave out stuff that’s getting lifted all the time–that’s why razors (have you seen the new Fusion? 173 blades for an exquisitely close shave!) are locked up in a lot of places.

    My first condom purchase was in our county seat of 3,000 people, at the Phillips Pharmacy where the clerks would throw boxes of Cracker Jacks to me when I was a kid. As I scanned the options with my 15-year-old eyes, a clerk walked by and said “oh, shopping for the prom?” Then I went up to stand in line, and it turned out the elderly women in front of me (who presumably knew who I was) were waiting on an Rx question, so another clerk helpfully took me ahead of them, and I got to smack my box of condoms on the counter in between them.

    Old enough to fuck, old enough to deal with some embarrassment. Or go to a vending machine if you really have issues.

  6. Old enough to fuck, old enough to deal with some embarrassment. Or go to a vending machine if you really have issues.

    The choice isn’t between “no sex” and “buying a condom in public.” It’s between facing that humiliation and just having sex anyway–and people apparently make the latter choice. This is only logical; you’d think there’d be a pretty strong correlation between sexual immaturity and a lack of sexual responsibility.

    And what vending machines?

  7. piny,

    I don’t think I’m creating the false dichotomy; I believe you are. It isn’t a choice between facing humiliation and just having sex anyway. For one thing, is it that much more humiliating to say “can you unlock this for me?” than to hand the item to the cashier to scan? For another, there’s the vending machines, unless things vary a lot by area (I’m not being sarcastic, maybe they do). I’ve lived in West Virginia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Florida–the vending machines have been present in convenience stores and gas stations (and bars, but that’s moot for a teenager).

    I dunno, I don’t see it as a “humiliation” in any case. Maybe it’s just because I’m a libertine.

  8. My university used to give them out, but that was back in the 80s, when the public-health aspect outweighed the godbag horror at the fornication.

    In fact, my school was quite realistic about the risk — we already had one of the highest rates of STDs of US campuses when AIDS started hitting the hetero population, so their solution was to have UConndom week every year and make everyone as comfortable as possible with condoms. Hell, I collected condom compacts before I’d even seen a penis belonging to someone I wasn’t related to, and looked forward to the guess-how-many-condoms-in-the-big-jar raffle and the baskets of condoms in the library even though I didn’t lose my virginity until after I graduated.

    And, in fact, I credit that exposure and education with allowing me to very confidently insist on condoms once I did start having sex and not be embarrassed or intimidated at buying them.

  9. Sorry to be self-centered, but dude, there’s a photo of my hometown Phillips Pharmacy online! You can see the sign to the right of the train heading down Main Street. Sweet, sweet condom memories.

  10. For one thing, is it that much more humiliating to say “can you unlock this for me?” than to hand the item to the cashier to scan?

    Is it that much more humiliating to walk up to a vending machine in a gas station than to walk into a pharmacy? Why are you assuming that your comfort levels can be generalized?

  11. Why are you assuming your discomfort levels can be generalized? The vending machines are usually in the bathrooms, by the way.

    Anyway, I think fighting the drugstores on this issue just buys into the stigma instead of trying to weaken it. But whatever, agree to disagree, peace out, last word’s yours.

  12. It isn’t about the embarassment factor, it’s about ease. There’s no feasible reason besides “What about THE CHILDREN???!!!1!” that condoms should be locked away or behind the counter.

  13. Whenever I hear about the embarrassment of buying condoms, someone older than myself always directs me to Summer of ’42.

    Well, Lauren, there is theft. But there’s got to be a better way of putting tags on those things to ensure that they set off the magnetometers at the door.

  14. Ok, personal story here:

    I am the last person in the world who finds sex shameful. I give all kinds of sex ed, anal health, and sexual pleasure workshops. I volunteered at the university health center and hosted sex toys parties in the dorms. I’ve been giving condom demonstrations since high school. I was asked to be the sex columnist for my college paper (a position that I turned down, but not because of discomfort). Playing with condoms, talking about safer sex, and all kinds of frank discussion is no issue for me.

    But I did go to buy condoms one night at Duane Reade, found them locked up, and was surprisingly intimidated to ask for help. Since it was late, there weren’t very many employees in the store. I didn’t want to wait in line and make the only cashier leave her post and ignore the other shoppers to come open the pharmacy for me. I didn’t want to ask the security guard, because I figured he probably wouldn’t be able to get them for me. I looked all around, and couldn’t find anyone else, so finally I approached the cashier, who announced that only the manager had the key. So I waited for her to get the manager, who was an older woman. She got the security guard — a man about my age — and handed him her key, while she sat down in a chair and watched him open the gate. They both stood there and stared at me as I looked at the selection and tried to make sure I was getting the right kind. I grabbed the first box I saw and practically ran out of there.

    And that’s the problem: Having to involve multiple other people (three, in my case) in your safer sex choices is embarassing. It’s also time-consuming — I was in that stupid drug store for 20 minutes. And yeah, old enough to fuck old enough to ask for condoms, sure, it’s a great theory — but it holds as much water as, “old enough for sex, old enough to accept the responsibility” anti-choice argument. Having to announce to every employee in the store that you’re about to go fuck is a major disincentive, even to the sexually secure.

  15. Why are you assuming your discomfort levels can be generalized? The vending machines are usually in the bathrooms, by the way.

    Dude. I’m queer. I live in San Francisco. I’m not uncomfortable with the buying anal vibrators from the sexagenarian leather bear who sits in his harness behind the counter of the tantric walk-in closet over on Castro and Eighteenth. Condoms don’t bother me in the slightest.

    I know, however, that teenage girls are sometimes too embarrassed to talk about condom use with the boys they’re about to have sex with–so much so that they just forego protection. I’m not talking about my discomfort, but about other people’s. Its existence and the correlation with unsafe sex is a settled question; you think that we should ignore it and just hope the kids cowboy up.

  16. I should add to that, though, that I don’t have to go to a pharmacy. I can go to Good Vibes and chat about condoms for half an hour with the receptive, knowledgeable, queer-friendly staff.

  17. Not that condoms should be locked away, but it should be pointed out that if your concern is stopping AIDS rather than pregnancy or other STDs, making condonms available is probably the smallest part of the solution , at least outside of the gay community.

    HIV is rarely spread through vaginal sex. It is sexually spread mainly through anal sex. The largest spreader of AIDS in Washington D.C. is prob ably through intravenous drug use.

    Condoms are usefu;l for the gay community and for women with IV-drug using or bisexual boyfriends with whom they engage in anal sex. Other than that, the risk of spreading AIDS is not that great. (Even in Africa, a large number of cases are msot likely from shared needles or (from males) from illicit homosexual intercourse, not from heterosexual vaginal sex).

  18. HIV is rarely spread through vaginal sex. It is sexually spread mainly through anal sex. The largest spreader of AIDS in Washington D.C. is prob ably through intravenous drug use.

    I won’t be so crude as to go BWAHAHAHAHA on this, but do you have a cite?

  19. Not that condoms should be locked away, but it should be pointed out that if your concern is stopping AIDS rather than pregnancy or other STDs, making condonms available is probably the smallest part of the solution , at least outside of the gay community.

    First, what Zuzu said. Second, there isn’t a single concern here — there are multiple concerns, including STI prevention, HIV prevetion, and pregnancy prevention. Condoms help all three of those goals. Third, drug stores service everyone, including gay men. So if we want to prevent the spread of HIV in the gay community, and we know that gay men shop at drugstores like everyone else, we should probably make condoms available.

    Anyway, not trying to be snarky or rude here (although admittedly I’m cranky for reasons unrelated to blogging, so if this has a bitchy tone I apologize!), just wanted to point out those things.

  20. I’ve heard that the condoms sold through vending machines are novelty condoms (glow in the dark or something, never had to check it out myself) and not as reliable as real ones. Is this the case? And do they even have condom machines in women’s bathrooms?

  21. Yes, it’s all a big lie. Except, wait, no one ever said that condoms prevent all sexually transmitted diseases in all circumstances. But 97% efficacy when used correctly? I’ll take that.

    As opposed to the, what, 80% increased likelihood of STI contraction and unwanted pregnancy that follows abstinence vows made by American teens in the first year? The fundies always seem to want to gloss that over.

    I’m sorry, we should have just let the South, where these sorts of ideas seem to have originated, secede. We’d have all been better off.

  23. Incidently, I think condom vending machines are a great idea. Fairly secure, no shame, etc. I’ve never seen them in the US, but they’re fairly common in Germany and are out in the open, not hidden in sleazy gas station or bar restrooms. And containing real condoms, not just the silly novelty ones.

    Apart from the condom issue, some places also seem to keep pregnancy tests locked up. I wonder if that’s not a factor in some women, particularly young, easily embarrassed women, not finding out that they’re pregnant until fairly far along. If you can’t get a pregnancy test, you have to wait until the signs are unmistakable…which might not be until the second trimester if you’re lucky enough to not have severe morning sickness.

  24. Jesus weeps.

    Here’s a bunch of people blogging and stuff and ya know if you’re embarassed you can order them over that thing called a computer.

  25. Here’s a bunch of people blogging and stuff and ya know if you’re embarassed you can order them over that thing called a computer.

    Obviously. But that doesn’t work if you need them right now.

  26. Nor if you’re young, say, and don’t have a credit card, or live under your parents’ roof where they see incoming mail too.

  27. Zuzu, UConn is sitll very good at giving condoms away. Just yesterday, I helped the student government recieve a shipment of 5,000 condoms. At the same time, a local organization was offering free STD tests, and giving away condoms, and, there are several places on campus that give them away.

  30. A machine-washable denim condom might cut the whole Gordian Knot here.

    Well, at first blush yes, but then, who washes it? Who keeps it until next use? What if gets left at home in the heat of passion? What if dad finds it? Who repairs it when it rips?

    When I moved up to New Hampster, I noticed that hostile seperalities such as glass walled clerks in liquor stores, bars on desirables in stores, pull down metal gates and doors just aren’t around here.

    Yet people up here steal just as much as anyone else.

    But they are white.

    Oh and condoms in almost every Rite Aid, CVS or indpendent drug store hang from stems usually at end cap displays, accessible by anyone over the age of 4 and without having to ask anyone.

    And Hubris, being an underage male and asking for condoms doesn’t quite make a suitable comparison to an underage female making such a request to an adult.

    And the only place I ever saw a condom dispenser was in unisex bathrooms of rundown gas stations or bars around in New Mexico. I’m not telling you how it is that I know so many such places out there either.

  31. being an underage male and asking for condoms doesn’t quite make a suitable comparison to an underage female making such a request to an adult.
    That is such a good point.

  32. And Hubris, being an underage male and asking for condoms doesn’t quite make a suitable comparison to an underage female making such a request to an adult.

    Well, the girl (Jo _______) who was with me was buying some too, if that helps firm up my anecdote.

  33. Yeah, it’s really hard to guess at someone’s discomfort level… my husband is actually far more sexually experienced than I am, and yet the first time we had to buy condoms, he tunred 8 shades of red and refused to coem to the counter with me. I, for one, know that if I had to ask someone to get them for me, I would leave without them. I don’t want to involve the entire store in knowing that at some point in the near future, I am planning on having sex and I have been married for almost 5 years and have 3 children. Now, I could order them from the internet, get them from my doctor, etc… but as a teenager, had I been sexually active as a high schooler, I wouldn’t have had any of those options and in the small town I lived in, there is no way I was asking someone to unlock them. That would’ve greatly increased the probability of someone I know seeing me and telling my parents. Who would’ve killed me, just FYI.
    That being said, I do agree that companies have a right to protect themselves from theft. I don’t know what the answer is, but the idea of condoms and pregnany tests (another thing I have always been slightly embarrassed buying, even with planned, actively tried for pregnancies) being locked up is very scary. Should we concentrate on erasing the social stigma? Absolutely. But with several groups on the other side fighting equally as hard to maintain or increase the social shame/stigma, it’s not an overnight cure. It would be much more prudent to find easier theft avoidance solutions while working on reducing stigma. I’m just not sure what…. ink tags? That might work.

  34. When I moved up to New Hampster, I noticed that hostile seperalities such as glass walled clerks in liquor stores, bars on desirables in stores, pull down metal gates and doors just aren’t around here.

    Yet people up here steal just as much as anyone else.

    But they are white.

    Do you know that they steal just as much as anyone else, or are you just assuming it, because you believe that everyone is the same?

  35. I won’t be so crude as to go BWAHAHAHAHA on this, but do you have a cite?

    Michael Fumento wrote about this in several places:
    Here
    here
    here.

    As for the statistics that show how many men get AIDS with no risk factors other than vaginal intercourse, Fumento has pointed out that in a lot of those cases, people merely took the man at his word; New York City, when it investigated such cases, found that the vast majority of men who “got AIDS from a woman” actually had other risk factors that they had lied about (see here).

    Magic Johnson was long rumored to have been bisexual before he announced that he was HIV-positive.

    Even in Africa, it is highly likely that risk factors other than heterosexual intercourse are actually to blame for the AIDS epidemic.

    In any case, I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t care whether condoms are available to homosexuals or that there are no reasons why heterosexuals should have access to condoms. I was just pointing out that of the arguments for condom availability, “1 in 20 Washington D.C.-ites have HIV” is probably not the strongest one, as I doubt that sex is the cause of most of those infections. (I suspect that intravenous drug use is the major cause, and therefore, in terms of containing AIDS, a needle exchange program is the most important thing for which to push. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned with condom use, but it should not be emphasized at the expense of emphasizing IV drug use as a cause and attempting to reduce the infections caused by that).

  36. Glaivester, you should know better than to offer cites to a thinktank Townhall wingnut who isn’t even a scientist for stats like that:

    Michael Fumento is an author, journalist, and attorney specializing in science and health issues. He is a regular contributor to Townhall, and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He received his undergraduate degree while serving in the Army, where he achieved the rank of sergeant. In 1985 he was graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law.

    He has been a science columnist for the Scripps Howard New Service, a legal writer for the Washington Times, editorial writer for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and was the first “National Issues” reporter for Investor’s Business Daily. In 2005 he reported from Iraq as an embed with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah.

    Mr. Fumento was the 1994 Warren T. Brookes Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., a fellow with Consumer Alert in Washington, D.C., and a science correspondent for Reason magazine.

    And you’re seriously citing “rumored” bisexuality in the case of Magic Johnson?

  37. Glaivster-

    First, you said:

    HIV is rarely spread through vaginal sex. It is sexually spread mainly through anal sex. The largest spreader of AIDS in Washington D.C. is prob ably through intravenous drug use.

    Then to back that up,

    As for the statistics that show how many men get AIDS with no risk factors other than vaginal intercourse, Fumento has pointed out that in a lot of those cases, people merely took the man at his word; New York City, when it investigated such cases, found that the vast majority of men who “got AIDS from a woman” actually had other risk factors that they had lied about

    Even if we take your statistics on their face, that still doesn’t prove anything. Why? Because you completely left women out of the picture. If AIDS is rarely spread through vaginal sex, how are women getting it? Definitely not through lesbianism. So they’re all having anal sex or what?

    Now, you’re right in that it’s much more difficult for men to contract HIV through vaginal sex; it’s more difficult for men to contract any body-fluid-based STI through vaginal sex (or through anal sex if they’re the one giving). Basically, the receptive partner is any sexual act is more vulnerable to STIs. But since when are we just talking about men? To state that “HIV is rarely spread through vaginal sex” and then to back it up how you do ignores the entire half of the population with vaginas.

  38. Michael Fumento has never published in the peer reviewed literature. Therefore, he is simply not a credible source. Certainly not credible as a sole source of data. Can you find any actual peer reviewed studies that back your claims?

  39. The police reports of store thefts and burglaries are in the local newspapers up here, Glaivester. If you believed in racial theories of criminality, living in NH you’d have to conclude that being French was a primary cause of crime…

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