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Culture Responsible for #MeToo Helps Spark Record-Breaking STD Epidemic

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The numbers are in and they’re terrifying.

During Tuesday’s National STD Prevention Conference, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared some alarming findings in their latest STD report.

For the fourth straight year, sexually transmitted diseases in the United States rose sharply; 2017 eclipsed 2016’s record number of STD cases by nearly 200,000.

Nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were diagnosed in the United States in 2017. That’s a mind-boggling number.

Obviously, 2018 isn’t over yet, but the trajectory of the past four years is unsettling.

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Chlamydia remained the most common STD in America, with 1.7 million cases. Primary and secondary syphilis diagnoses jumped a whopping 76 percent, up to 30,644 cases. Gonorrhea cases increased 67 percent, up to 555,608 cases.

Perhaps one of the most alarming numbers to emerge was that 45 percent of the apparently rampant chlamydia cases were diagnosed in girls and women between the ages of 15 and 24. 15!

“We are sliding backward,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. “It is evident the systems that identify, treat, and ultimately prevent STDs are strained to near-breaking point.”

Being strained to the “near-breaking point” doesn’t just happen overnight. And the steady, massive jumps over the last four years attest to that.

The proclivity of promiscuous and flippant sex is an idea that has been seeded, nurtured and grown primarily from the entertainment industry.

Whether it’s music, television or movies, pop culture has been pushing relentlessly toward changing sex from an intimate act between loved ones into something as commonplace as a convenience store transaction.

The cruel irony, of course, is that Hollywood is the same place that sparked the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that have outed and targeted sexual abusers

In and of itself, identifying and condemning people who have the shamelessness to abuse their position of power to sexually assault someone is commendable.

But by that same token, it’s the same exact culture that’s glorified adolescent fantasies to the point where American high school students are “expected” to lose their virginity before college — with absolutely zero expectation of marriage having anything to do with it.

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The fury of the #MeToo and #TimesUp militants rings a little hollow when it’s placed in the context of an entertainment culture that has been celebrating the lie of wanton, consequence-free sexual promiscuity for generations now.

It’s sadly not a surprise at all that that sex-driven narrative has given rise to an increasingly dangerous epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases.

Not to sound too pessimistic, but based on the sheer numbers and Hollywood’s deep-seeping tendrils in modern culture, it’s going to take a Herculean effort to stem the tide.

It won’t be nearly as hard to figure out where a good deal of the blame really should go.

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Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.
Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.
Birthplace
Hawaii
Education
Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, Korean
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech




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