Pack the female and male condoms together
I read with interest an article about female condoms in <i>The New Vision April, 20. The issue of the female condom is a classical case in the public health and social science discourse.
By Robert Ssekubugu
I read with interest an article about female condoms in The New Vision April, 20. The issue of the female condom is a classical case in the public health and social science discourse.
I appreciate, the female condom is ideally one of those tools that would enhance women’s control towards safe sex.
However, it is acknowledged by many that sex, at least in the African context, is largely controlled by men.
Maleness here means that women hardly determine when to have sex, how much of it, in what way, how safe, and sometimes with whom. These are all largely male decisions.
The highlighted sexual stereotypes undermine the scaling up of female initiated measures like the female condom. In fact in a typical scenario a woman’s attempt to determine on any of the above sexual stereotypes would attract intimate partner stigma; and being labelled promiscuous is to say the least. This frustrates female-initiated measures like Female condoms and, therefore, calls for innovativeness to garner acceptability and meaningful scaling up. I suggest the following.
Twin packaging of the male and female condoms may help increase the use of the female condom. Compared to males, females lack a budget for their condoms.
Largely because sex is male, I do not see males adjusting to learn how to buy female condoms, which is supposed to be initiated by a sexual partner. Yet if we pack male and female condoms together, the traditional male condom buyer will inadvertently buy a female one as well. This way we can realise a speedy automatic distribution of the female condom thus breaking the stigma associated with it.
A mere introduction of female condoms in the couple’s life will be such a friendly orientation and potentially stimulate discussion on the topic, experiments and other campaigns will trickle in to boost utilisation.
The packaging of both the male and female condom can be called “safe kit†which will promote faster circulation and acceptability. The issue of the cost of the female condom has been underscored by many as well. By twin packaging it means the cost will be met by the male whom I presume as being more likely to afford it than the female counterpart.
My hypothesis is based on the known income distribution between male and female in our society and spending behaviours.
A pessimist may be worried that if the cost for male condoms is combined with female condoms, the price will go high and their might be a drop in demand which is dangerous to the HIV fight.
I would direct such a pessimist to the policy people who determine subsidies and I am sure they have ready answers.
Another pessimist may be worried that female and male condom manufacturers are different and, therefore, cannot brand and pack the two products together. I would tell such a person that as a country we have negotiated complexer issues, so this particular one should be easily solved.
My article aims to address the basic issues of access and awareness which are critical if efforts to give women an equal say over their sexuality are to yield any results.
The writer is a MUSPH-CDC a Mid-term fellow employed by Rakai Health Sciences Programme
I read with interest an article about female condoms in The New Vision April, 20. The issue of the female condom is a classical case in the public health and social science discourse.
I appreciate, the female condom is ideally one of those tools that would enhance women’s control towards safe sex.
However, it is acknowledged by many that sex, at least in the African context, is largely controlled by men.
Maleness here means that women hardly determine when to have sex, how much of it, in what way, how safe, and sometimes with whom. These are all largely male decisions.
The highlighted sexual stereotypes undermine the scaling up of female initiated measures like the female condom. In fact in a typical scenario a woman’s attempt to determine on any of the above sexual stereotypes would attract intimate partner stigma; and being labelled promiscuous is to say the least. This frustrates female-initiated measures like Female condoms and, therefore, calls for innovativeness to garner acceptability and meaningful scaling up. I suggest the following.
Twin packaging of the male and female condoms may help increase the use of the female condom. Compared to males, females lack a budget for their condoms.
Largely because sex is male, I do not see males adjusting to learn how to buy female condoms, which is supposed to be initiated by a sexual partner. Yet if we pack male and female condoms together, the traditional male condom buyer will inadvertently buy a female one as well. This way we can realise a speedy automatic distribution of the female condom thus breaking the stigma associated with it.
A mere introduction of female condoms in the couple’s life will be such a friendly orientation and potentially stimulate discussion on the topic, experiments and other campaigns will trickle in to boost utilisation.
The packaging of both the male and female condom can be called “safe kit†which will promote faster circulation and acceptability. The issue of the cost of the female condom has been underscored by many as well. By twin packaging it means the cost will be met by the male whom I presume as being more likely to afford it than the female counterpart.
My hypothesis is based on the known income distribution between male and female in our society and spending behaviours.
A pessimist may be worried that if the cost for male condoms is combined with female condoms, the price will go high and their might be a drop in demand which is dangerous to the HIV fight.
I would direct such a pessimist to the policy people who determine subsidies and I am sure they have ready answers.
Another pessimist may be worried that female and male condom manufacturers are different and, therefore, cannot brand and pack the two products together. I would tell such a person that as a country we have negotiated complexer issues, so this particular one should be easily solved.
My article aims to address the basic issues of access and awareness which are critical if efforts to give women an equal say over their sexuality are to yield any results.
The writer is a MUSPH-CDC a Mid-term fellow employed by Rakai Health Sciences Programme