Over a quarter of NYC adults have genital herpes
Listening to Todd Wilken on the reborn Issues, Etc. on Pirate Christian Radio the other day, I heard a statistic I had a hard time believing: that a quarter of the adult population of New York City has genital herpes.
Turns out it's true- except the actual percentage is 26%.
Pastor Wilken was commenting on the influence Sex and the City has had on people there in promoting the unrealstic expectation that a sexually promiscuous single life is likely to end in a happily-ever-after marriage when Mr. or Ms. Right comes along. Doesn't happen. And you get these diseases, you see, as well as a partner whose faithfulness you can't count on, and difficulty remaining faithful yourself.
Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and infectious syphilis are also higher in New York City than nationally. But let's not make this a pick-on-New York story. Our national stats aren't that hot, either: 19% of all adult Americans have genital herpes.
Talk about celibacy to most unmarried Americans, and you'll get laughed at. There is no question that it's not an easy lifestyle for someone with a normal sexual drive, and there's no question that our national pattern of delaying and eschewing marriage has resulted in a record number of people living in what amounts to an unnatural situation. But these stats seem to me to be a pretty convincing argument that even when "everybody is doing it," extramarital sex just isn't a hot idea.
Kinda reminds me of the repeated studies in countries all over Europe and North America that all show that living together before marriage, rather than reducing the likelihood of divorce, doubles it. People haven't been much affected by that well-established statistical fact. And somehow, I doubt that the stats on genital herpes- either in New York City or nationally- will have much impact, either.
And so, people will continue to engage in behavior that exponentially increases the odds of getting divorced or contracting an STD, while destroying their capacity for sexual committment- and tell themselves that what they're doing is natural, and normal- and healthy.
Turns out it's true- except the actual percentage is 26%.
Pastor Wilken was commenting on the influence Sex and the City has had on people there in promoting the unrealstic expectation that a sexually promiscuous single life is likely to end in a happily-ever-after marriage when Mr. or Ms. Right comes along. Doesn't happen. And you get these diseases, you see, as well as a partner whose faithfulness you can't count on, and difficulty remaining faithful yourself.
Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and infectious syphilis are also higher in New York City than nationally. But let's not make this a pick-on-New York story. Our national stats aren't that hot, either: 19% of all adult Americans have genital herpes.
Talk about celibacy to most unmarried Americans, and you'll get laughed at. There is no question that it's not an easy lifestyle for someone with a normal sexual drive, and there's no question that our national pattern of delaying and eschewing marriage has resulted in a record number of people living in what amounts to an unnatural situation. But these stats seem to me to be a pretty convincing argument that even when "everybody is doing it," extramarital sex just isn't a hot idea.
Kinda reminds me of the repeated studies in countries all over Europe and North America that all show that living together before marriage, rather than reducing the likelihood of divorce, doubles it. People haven't been much affected by that well-established statistical fact. And somehow, I doubt that the stats on genital herpes- either in New York City or nationally- will have much impact, either.
And so, people will continue to engage in behavior that exponentially increases the odds of getting divorced or contracting an STD, while destroying their capacity for sexual committment- and tell themselves that what they're doing is natural, and normal- and healthy.
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