Hey folks, what would you think if I suddenly announced that a study (that I funded) had found that all sex blogs apart from mine cause computer viruses and I, being the crusader for good that I am, have committed myself to ridding the sex blogging world of viruses (which btw, are in all the other blogs, but not mine!) and I now challenge the other blogs to stop being so virus-causing, you know, if they care at all.
What would you think? Would you think:
A.”OMG! I should stop reading all of these virus-y blogs and read only JoEllen from here on out!”
B.”This is my first time at this site and now other sites are scary- no more sex blogs for me!”
C. “JoEllen has lost it and is clearly trying to scare us into reading only her site,”
I’m really hoping you chose C, that everyone sees that as the logical way to respond to such a scenario because while I would never actually do something this absurd, as we speak a new condom company is using the exact strategy I just described. Yes, seriously.
Earlier this year Sustain condoms came onto the scene and I have to tell you, at first I was rooting for them. A father/daughter, vegan, fair-trade condom company? I love all the words in that sentence! Then they funded a study and announced that its results (cancer-causing nitrosamines were found in many other condoms but not theirs!) meant that everyone else’s condoms would give you cancer. Check out their video Are Condoms Killing You (no question mark because who has time for punctuation when you’re fear-mongering?). Now, no one wants to just brush off the suggestion that we could be at risk for cancer, but the claims were almost immediately debunked.
I could talk about the study, the flaws in its execution, the way it seemed to be aimed at particular brands, the way it was FUNDED BY SUSTAIN but I’m not going to do that, other people have already done it quite well – check out Melissa White’s piece on the topic: Cigarettes Cause Cancer; Condoms Don’t on RH Reality Check. There you will also find a rebuttal piece from the group that conducted the story. Curiously that piece fails to address a lot of the shortcomings of the study but does make one thing clear- neither they, nor the study are saying that condoms can cause cancer- leaving us to deduce that that claim then is coming entirely from Sustain.
Here’s what I want to talk about: What could they possibly be thinking? I understand that it’s a crowded market, I know it’s hard to make your mark and that as a company that likes to boast about all the “change” they are going to make it must be hard to find a way to do that here, especially as they were nowhere near the first to the table on the vegan condom thing (Oh, and the brands that were vegan before them? Funny story, the “study” found nitrosamines, but testing by the world’s leading independent testing lab reported levels that were “effectively non-detectable”. Hmmm….). But any way I look at this it, I see a company that tried to get ahead by finding bad things to say about their competitors.
“People probably won’t believe they’re ALL Nazis, what else do you have?”
Sustain was looking to make their mark and they sure have. As far as I can see they are a company that is so greedy and irresponsible that they are willing to promote inaccurate information, scare people away from safer sex, turn the clock bask 30 years and put a whole lot of folks at risk because they imagine that will get them a bigger piece of the pie. Clearly this has gotten under my skin. Why does this bother me so much? Here goes:
1. The fear-mongering here is absurd. Did you know that nutmeg is poisonous? True story. Nutmeg can kill you- in very large doses. The amounts of nutmeg we tend to consume are totally harmless. Sustain’s war on nitrosamines is a lot like a new bakery announcing they don’t use nutmeg – and all the other bakeries have the potential to kill you because they use this poisonous substance. Nitrosamines can cause cancer if you are exposed to a metric fuck-ton of them. Not the case here.
2. 30 goddamn years have been spent educating, cajoling, teaching and begging people to use condoms. The battle against the stigma sometimes feels never-ending, why on earth would you turn the clock back on that? Are you that greedy?
3. The abstinence-only folks are already teaching children that condoms suck and don’t work. Kids who go through abstinence only education already come out less likely to use condoms. This has now armed their teachers with another little tidbit so they can now say “Condoms aren’t effective and look this says they cause cancer!”
4. Did they really think folks would see their video and think “Oh noes!!! I should go stock up on these (fairly new to the market) Sustain condoms! They are my only hope!!”? Did they really think that? Seriously? Because it took me about 10 seconds to get from reading about their study to saying “holy shit, people are going use this as a reason to stop using condoms!”
5. They keep throwing around the terms “penile cancer” and “cervical cancer” and there’s no evidence anywhere in the world that condoms contribute to either of those things. There is however tons of evidence that HPV does and condoms, which Sustain is now scaring people away from, help protect from HPV (though it is transmitted via skin to skin contact) so this whole “scaring people off condoms” thing, would probably contribute to more cancer.
6. It’s all so insulting! They are seriously just banking on the world hearing a science-y word (“oooh nitrosamines!!”) and “cancer” and being too scared, gullible or complacent to fact-check them.
So, now what? Well, the good news is we aren’t scared, gullible and complacent. The better news is we can spread the word. It is completely unacceptable for Sustain to mislead consumers and use scare tactics and stigma to try to pad their wallets, especially when it will almost certainly come at a cost to public health. So, let’s be louder than the “condoms are killing you” hype. Share this piece. Better yet, share one of these:
Cigarettes Cause Cancer; Condoms Don’t by Melissa White
Are condoms killing you? This new contraceptive company wants you to think so by Tracy Clark-Flory
Tweet at the folks at Sustain and give them your thoughts:
- @sustaincondoms
- @JeffHollender (Sustain’s co-founder)
- @missmeiks (Sustain’s co-founder)
Use these hashtags: #condomtruth #bettercondoms and follow them online – some great stuff has been happening already!
Let Sustain know that if they want to “create change” they need to start with their own business practices.
