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Reporting on STDs
By Samhita Mukhopadhyay
The Nation
Thursday 20 March 2008
As though last week's report about 1 in 4 girls having contracted an STD was not startling enough, The New York Times last Thursday led with this as the title:
Sex Infection Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls
This characterization of young women conjures several different issues for me.
I am all for raising awareness about the potential threats of STDs, but I support fair and balanced coverage, not scare reporting. Using the term "infected" sounds like there has been an outbreak of birdflu and feeds into the hyped notion that some incurable disease is spreading that we are powerless against. We (by which I mean feminists) have known for some time that young women are at a high risk of HPV. That's why we've opposed cuts in funding for sex ed programs, abstinence-only programs and the obstacles that have made the HPV vaccine difficult for young women to obtain, especially poor women of color.
What I want to know is where is the study that shows how young women are getting these STDs? Why is the burden and spotlight only on young women? What are young men doing that is leading to "high risk" behaviors and leading to young women being "infected?" I think it is important to look at the risks for young women and educate and spread resources accordingly, but it is wrong and unhelpful to suggest that this is a problem only for young women.
I do believe the NY Times was trying to do the right thing by attempting to inform the public, but without reframing the debate and making connections to larger policies that deny young women and women of color resources, it doesn't really do much good. There are so many assumptions about young women - and especially young women of color and their assumed sexual promiscuity - the news media has to do more to actually influence public opinion or inspire people to do something. Dismal stats just make us all feel helpless. Looking at racist and sexist policy and how that influences the behavior of young men and women to see where key interventions might be possible, might be a place to start.
One of the key issues here is that young women of color are rarely, if ever, on the front page of any newspaper. The press doesn't usually count the news affecting their lives as real news, so to only report about women of color when it relates to "sex infection" fuels nasty stereotypes in a media, that is already inundated with overly sexed images of women of color.
So then where do we go? HALF of the African American girls studied had contracted some form of STD. That is a staggering statistic and it is hard to blame such a clear discrepancy on personal behavior and choice. Abstinence-only policies, funding cuts and poor educational systems hit young black women the hardest. And they don't deserve it.
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