There's now a Johnny to suit every willy, with about thirty types of condom commonly on sale in Britain. You can buy thick condoms and thin condoms, ribbed condoms "for extra arousal", green condoms, black condoms, extra-length condoms, lubricated condoms, teat-ended and plain-ended condoms, hypo-allergenic condoms, Swedish condoms and Chinese condoms, condoms in packets of three and condoms in packets of ten and you can find them on the shelf in Tesco's or still on sale in old-fashioned barber's shops.
There are also flavoured condoms - Durex and Mates both produce a peppermint prophylactic - and London's latest fashion accessory shop, Condomania, sells "sensual succulents" you can smear on your condom, adding fruit to fellatio; produced by the US company ForPlay, flavours include wild strawberry, french vanilla, green apple and even hot cinnamon. And, if that's not enough to make you gag, you can even buy condoms that glow in the dark or which play jingle bells when you remove them from the packet.
In short, "rubbers" have never been easier to buy and there's never been such choice. Indeed, after a 20% rise in condom sales since the mid-1980s, 1.6 million British men are now choosing to use 144 million sheaths a year. Among straight couples, for the first time since the mid 1970s, the condom is more popular than the combined contraceptive pill as couples' main choice of contraception.
The reasons for this condom explosion are obvious: many women now want a side-effect-free alternative to the pill and more men (gay or straight) and women want to protect themselves against the risks of HIV infection. And with AIDS infection rates still rising - now fastest among heterosexuals - there's never been a better time for men to "slip into something safe and sexy" as the slogan of the British Safety Council National Condom Week (12-17 August, 1991) put it.
But while the increase in condom use is impressive, (and each year provides some £33 million for the manufacturers), safer sex is not yet practiced widely enough. "There's now a high level of knowledge about HIV, but it's not translated into practice", says Derek Bodell, Senior Programme Officer for HIV/AIDS and sexual health at the HEA - "It's rather like people still eating cream cakes when they know they should be on a diet".
According to The Durex Report: The Facts of Life in the 90s, 50% of men and 60% of women aged 16-20 have not changed their sexual behaviour because of concern about AIDS. And it seems that it's heterosexual men who are most reluctant to use condoms. Kaye Wellings is a Senior Research Fellow at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School and currently working on a national survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles. She believes that "there's not a lot of information to suggest that many men feel more motivated to use condoms. It's still women who generally take responsibility for HIV and birth control".
Recent Health Education Authority research has found that a worrying 61% of men aged 16-34 who'd slept with two or more women in the past year still didn't use a condom when they last had sex; what's more 34% of men said they weren't sure if they'd use a condom if they had a new partner.
| "'Even if they found a cure for HIV tomorrow, I'd still carry on using a condom" - Peter Tatchell |
Gay men have been more aware of the importance of using condoms for anal sex and of safer sex generally. This is reflected in a City Limits magazine/Protect Sigma survey published last June, which found that 24% of heterosexual men always used condoms for intercourse with regular partners compared to 42% of gay men. A similar pattern emerged among men who had casual partners: 42% of straight men and 61% of gay men always used condoms. But there's still a lot of men, gay and straight, who aren't taking precautions.
So how can more of them be encouraged to do so, despite their obvious reluctance to wrap their members in latex? Perhaps the least effective approach is the "iceberg and tombstone" scare tactics of the Government's early AIDS awareness advertising. But other fresher ideas are now emerging. For example, Ben Hole, a condom project worker for Tower Hamlets, is keen to persuade men of condoms' many advantages, aside from safety: "They can help tackle the problem of premature ejaculation; used with lubricants they make penetration easier; there are no arguments about who sleeps in the wet patch; and, with condoms, unlike some other contraceptives, any drawbacks are shared between men and women".
Gay rights campaigner and writer Peter Tatchell goes further: "Even if they found a cure for HIV tomorrow, I'd still carry on using condoms. Far from diminishing sexual pleasure, condoms can actually enhance it. They may slightly reduce sensitivity, but they prolong the build-up to climax and produce a much more explosive orgasm".
Others, like Derek Bodell of the HEA, suggest that men who find that the pleasures of penetration are reduced by condom-cladding might find compensation by paying greater attention to non- or pre-penetrative sex. Such activity includes what used to be called "heavy petting" - kissing, licking, "frottage" and mutual masturbation. Certainly, many gay men have now been practising this form of safe sex for years. Unfortunately, however, most straight men - and especially young men - still regard penetration as the only valid form of sex, symbolising as it does their domination of women and essential masculinity.
This leads Ben Hole to believe that it's important to persuade young men that prophylactics are both stylish and manly. Hole's message for young men is that "it's as cool to wear condoms as it is to wear RayBan shades". Durex have also taken up this idea and their "Safe-Play" range of condoms are promoted as "The Young People's Brand". They come in cigarette pack-style boxes with large, brightly coloured lettering. Jiffi, have gone even further - perhaps too far. They promote their condoms with slogans like "Real men do it in A Jiffi", "If she's game and wants your plonker, wear a Jiffi so you can bonk her" and "Only wankers don't use condoms".
Men also need to be attracted into family planning services, traditionally seen as women's domain. Only 3% of NHS Family Planning Clinic's clients are men; Ben Hole knows of a London FPC which has just one male client who visits every six months. But FPCs - currently the only source of free condoms for men - are being cut back by cash-starved District Health Authorities. Many are keen to transfer family planning to GPs, but while they can prescribe the pill or the diaphragm to women, they are currently unable to prescribe free condoms to men. However, this may change as GPs take on more health promotion work following recent NHS reforms.
The manufacturers are hoping to persuade us that condoms can be fun as well as good for you, hence the flavours and the colours. But perhaps more honesty about the realities of condom use would be helpful. It's made to seem easy but after all, there's more to using condoms than wearing a raincoat. They are difficult to get on at first; they can be embarrassing with a new partner; they do interfere with the flow of sex; they do feel funny; they can make some men lose their erections; and they do have to be disposed of carefully. If men knew what difficulties to expect - and that they would disappear with practice - then many might be keener to persist.
Derek Bodell wants to see "condom normalisation" - he looks forward to a time when buying a packet of sheaths will be no more embarrassing, terrifying, peculiar or exciting than purchasing paracetamol. Somewhat disingenuously, Condomania's brochure already claims "It's as natural to have a packet of condoms by the bedside as it is to have soap in the bathroom". But with many men still claiming that sex with condoms is "like eating a sweet with the wrapper on" this outcome still appears to be some way off.
Copyright © Achilles Heel Collective
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