Aug

18

Condom culture

August 18, 2006 | 1 Comment

http://www.adrianabertini.com.br/THEY COME in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours and even flavours. Some are edible, some have orgasm-inducing textures and some have been turned into art. They have adorned the cars of newly weds and been fashioned into water bombs.

You can even clothe yourself in them, if you have a particularly bizarre sense of fashion, and Brazilian designer and artist Adriana Bertini can show you how. Her condom couture — eyes right, folks — was on display at the Toronto Aids Conference (which ends today).

For those in search of just the right no-frills chic accessories for the new wardrobe, jiffy jewellery was being made by the hour, specifically pins and brooches, brainchild of The Condom Project. Here’s how it’s done; just be really really careful when attaching that safety pin:

condom broochWorking around a table filled with condoms, art paper, pins, and double-sided tape, TCP coordinators train volunteers on how to use visual art in order to educate their communities. Their task is simple. Using condoms with clear-backed packaging, everyone makes Condom Art Pins.

The front side of the condom package is decorated while the transparent backing is left exposed so that the condom itself is visible through the packaging, further breaking down the mystery of condoms. The clear side of the Condom Art Pin showing the condom faces the body, a safety pin is attached, creating a piece of wearable art.

– from The Condom Project Website

Examples of condom pin art (right) are from Thailand and Japan. These and others can be seen on The Body‘s photo journal of the 2004 AIDS conference held in Bangkok, Thailand. To publicize the event a giant condom was placed in a busy neighbourhood of the capital, acting as a display board for people wishing to pin up positive messages in the fight against the disease.

The idea is to create a culture around condoms, demystifying and destigmatizing them without attacking ethnic identity, religious beliefs or various sexual mores. And it’s never been a more important task. Safe sex has always meant freedom from unwanted pregnancies and STDs. But now condoms have come to mean evading a death sentence: AIDS According to UNAIDS and WHO estimates of the current death toll are around 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the worst affected region, with an estimated 21.6 to 27.4 million people currently living with HIV.

Even some sectors of the Catholic Church are loosening up regarding the contraceptive. In April Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, said that in the fight against AIDS the use of condoms could be regarded as a lesser evil. In a more extreme move, Colombian teenagers may be compelled to carry condoms in a controversial effort to stop unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. In many countries like South Africa, Brazil and India condoms are distributed free and there are a growing number of US websites like Jolly Johns that ship the johnnies free.

Thinking outside the box

The prophylactic that was once made of animal intestine has been reborn over the centuries in linen (reputedly used by Casanova who was obviously thinking with the wrong head), rubber in the 1800s, latex since the 1930s and most recently polyurethane, and nitrile (female condoms). One of the earliest brands of condom was the Merry Widows, a three-pack of reuseable prophylactics packaged in a tin with the names of the widows on the lid: Agnes, Mabel and Beckie. Funky! Today branding, packaging and promotion is no less innovative.

Condom packagingSome of the best examples of eye-catching packaging hail from Japan. (Make the most of your break ;-) ) Sites like the Pennysylvania, US Stiff Competition hold an annual contest for condom packaging ideas. (We can do it if you use it!) Custom wraps are also all the rage — Interware offers some fun options (including Free cover for you and a friend).

The ONE line of condoms has created a great brand gimmick:

Round from the inside out, with a sleek, circular outer container, bold colors, and constantly refreshed visual images on the inside wrappers, ONE makes its mark as a sophisticated and sensible choice for men and women alike. Each wrapper image is paired with a catch phrase, a “One Liner”. For example, a picture of a blueprint is shown with the words “One idea”, and the Eiffel Tower is depicted with the line “One culture”. A view of the Earth from outer space has the caption “Believe in one”.

– from the One Condoms website

In Thailand the Tom Dundee brand has raised eyebrows, amongst other things. Why? Dundee translates as good penetration and the Culture Ministry officials feel it is in bad taste. The contraceptives have borrowed the stage name of popular country singer Puntiva Poomiprates who defended his endorsement saying he was merely following a government policy to promote safe sex in a country where over 500,000 people have HIV or AIDS.

The Durex Condom brand derived its name in 1929 from Durability, Reliability, and Excellence. The company has become known for its amusing, sometimes risque, campaigns including TV adverts which have been reportedly banned in some countries. Durex condoms represent around one quarter of the global market for prophylactic sheathes, manufacturing around one trillion units per year in 17 factories worldwide.

Calling the shots

FemidomWhen the first female condom hit the market, it pretty much flopped in developed countries with complaints about the difficulty of insertion and the noise it made during intercourse. From a marketing point of view, packaging for the female condom is dull as dishwater and could do with a serious overhaul. Nonetheless, in underdeveloped countries it has been seen as a godsend and the Female Health Company which developed the female-initiated barrier method struck a deal with the World Heath Organisation to sell the femidom at a discount to education programmes in more than 80 developing countries, mainly those hit hardest by Aids.

In Sri Lanka clients of female sex workers are enticed by the love glove, which is offered as a sex toy since the plastic ring inside rubs against the glans during intercourse so intensifying male orgasm. The clients also get to insert the femidom — a particular turn-on because scrutiny of the vagina, let alone playing touchy-feely, is a huge taboo in the country. And so it costs extra! Enterprising women in Senegal and Zimbabwe have also put a spin on the contraceptive:

In Senegal, the condoms are sold with noisy “bine bine” beads; an erotic accessory that women wear around their hips. The rustle of the polyurethane during sex is now associated with the clicking of the beads – and so, a turn-on. Senegalese women have also cleverly suggested that the large size of the condom reflects that of their partner’s penis …

… In Zimbabwe, where 930,000 of the 1,600,000 adults infected with HIV are women, a new word – kaytec-yenza – has entered the vernacular to describe the “tickle” created by the inner ring rubbing against the penis.

– from the August 23, 2005 The Guardian article

Thinking ahead

So what does the future hold? In 2000 Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, developed a gel that hardens in response to body temperature when inserted into the vagina or rectum. This invisible condom has been shown in laboratory trials to effectively block HIV and herpes simplex virus. The barrier breaks down and liquefies after several hours. The invisible condom is still in the clinical trial phase, and has not been approved for use yet.

Toward the end of 2003 researchers at Stanford University in California were talking about a living condom: genetically modified vaginal bateria which secrete proteins that protect women against HIV. In test tube experiments, an enhanced vaginal bacterium was able to completely block laboratory strains of HIV from infecting human cells, and blocked infection by a strain recently isolated from patients by more than half. Research is ongoing.

Last word

Finally, courtesy of Jardmail a few potential condom slogans — if only the corporates would branch out ;-)

Nike Condoms – Just do it.
Peugeot Condoms – The ride of your life.
Microsoft Condoms – Where do you want to go today?
KFC Condoms – Finger lickin’ good!
Burger King Condoms – Home of the Whopper.
Abbey National Condoms – Because life’s complicated enough.
Coca Cola Condoms – The Real Thing.
Andrex Condoms – Soft, strong and very very long.
Macintosh Condoms – It does more, it costs less, it’s that simple.
Goodyear Condoms – For a longer ride go wide.
Royal Mail condoms – I saw this and thought of you.
BT condoms – Stay in touch!
Halfords Condoms – We go the extra mile!
Abbey National Condoms – Because life is complicated enough.
Energizer condoms – It keeps going and going and going…
The Star Trek Condom – To boldly go where no man has gone before.
One-2-One condoms – Who would you most like to have a 1-2-1 with?
Windows condoms – Plug and Play!

See also

Cartoon come-ons
Toss your preconceptions aside

2007 news

This Washington Post article reports on inaccurate information about the safety and use of condoms in three curricula used by programs that receive federal abstinence-only funding.

How would you feel about this New Contraceptive?


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Toss your preconceptions aside : frmb2u on April 23, 2007 8:51 pm

    [...] Cartoon come-ons Condom culture [...]

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