newjerseynewsroom.com

BY SUSIE WILSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

SEX MATTERS

Here it is, some days after one of the largest snowfalls in New Jersey, and I'm thinking: summer. I imagine I'm on a beach that edges Monmouth or Ocean County, and I look up in the crystalline blue sky and see something: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman?

No, it is a giant, helium-filled condom. That's right: a 120- foot flying condom that is able to accommodate a pilot and three passengers.

The giant flying condom is the creation – and a gift of sorts – from a French safe-sex organization called CondomFly. The organization's lofty but highly pragmatic goal is to "promote condom use and the prevention of AIDS worldwide."

CondomFly recently unveiled this weapon in the battle against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris. (In English, this means the Palace of Discovery.) According to the press release, "the giant inflatable – dubbed Condomfière or Condom Pride – will set off on a five-continent tour to promote World AIDS Day, [which takes place] on December 1, 2010."

I hope the U.S. will be one the five continents to host the giant condom. I'd like to see it floated before hundreds of Americans lazing on beaches on both coasts this summer. We could certainly use such free advertising about condoms, given our high rates of STDs, including HIV, among both adult and teen populations.

The CDC estimates that there are 19 million new sexually transmitted infections each year in the U.S. and "almost half of them among young people." The cost to our health care system is estimated to be as high as $15.9 billion each year. A giant condom floating through the skies might just jolt us into using condoms more consistently and carefully.

But I can hear the grumbling already about the giant condom's possible arrival on our shores. The media has already reported that it wouldn't be allowed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Floating balloons are limited to 78 feet in length and 40 feet in width, and I'm sure the120-foot- long condom wouldn't stand a chance of a waiver.

Actually, much as I think we need all sorts of campaigns to promote condoms — primarily on primetime and cable TV – I can't see a giant condom floating beside Mickey Mouse and other children's favorites. (Even I know when to tone down my advocacy.)

Yet while the French approach to sexuality is a combination of good humor, realism, and accurate information, the U.S. approach is decidedly different. And it is writ large by the Sports Illustrated 2010 swimsuit issue, which arrived in yesterday's mail and again had me thinking of summer.

The issue transported me to beautiful, sun-drenched beaches – and even a glacier or two – on continents all over the world where gorgeous, almost entirely bare-breasted models cavort in the sun, sand, and water in their teeny-weenie, polka-dotted (and other colorfully designed) bikinis.

The message I got from the issue before handing it over to my husband was not one of fun-plus-responsibility conveyed by the giant French condom, but rather one that says "sex sells" magazines, bikinis, and beautiful bodies.

These pictures used to be only available through the old medium of print, but with the new media, these photos of nearly perfect women's bodies wearing the scantest of tops and bottoms can be seen on videos, phones, and through Facebook and Twitter by millions of people-probably more than will ever see the giant condom flying in the sky.

In fact, the annual swimsuit issue strikes me as the complete antithesis of the giant condom. Nothing in it promotes responsibility or protection against the consequences of unprotected sex. Actually, a friend of mine calls this particular issue of the magazine, Sex Illustrated, because he says that it has little to do with actual sports.

My hunch is that Sports Illustrated would refuse to allow condom ads in this issue. (Ads for Viagra? Possibly, but this issue is aimed primarily at young men in the prime of their sexual lives.) I noticed, for example, that the cover model Brooklyn Decker – who is married to tennis star Andy Roddick – is not wearing a wedding ring. Such a display might detract from her sexual allure.

While advertisers and readers flock to the swimsuit issue, I worry that the prospect of a giant condom floating across the sky here might offend groups that believe these types of displays encourage young people to have sex. They miss the point that laughing together on a beach about condoms would help us talk as families and lovers about the importance of using condoms and lowering our high rates of STDs.

All I ask is for government officials to stand up against the disapproval of organized groups, should it materialize, and allow the giant condom to float in our sky this summer. For this giant condom balloon balances the realities and pleasures of sex with its possible consequences, something the swimsuit issue – enticing as it is – utterly fails to do.

Viva la France!

Now it's back to the snow.