Opinion: Condoms are fascist — here’s why you should stop wearing them:

by S. Allen

No machine on Earth is more perfect than the human body. Nature’s infinite complexity has not produced such a flawless specimen from the planet’s creation 4.6 billion years ago hitherto. The product of countless generations across the index of The Blue Marble’s species’ reaches its nexus at us. We have eliminated every natural predator. The human body cures itself, and diseases we cannot heal from ourselves are treatable medicinally with increasingly high success rates. Our physiological composition puts us at the zenith of the food chain; granting us favorable height, stamina, and environmental adaptability. By most qualitative and quantitive justifications, Homo Sapiens are a perfect organism.

It’s not unwarranted, therefore, to question the purpose of inhibiting one of man’s (and woman’s) most defining biological and neurological trait; intercourse for satisfaction. Lust, in effect. Despite both sexes reporting to prefer unprotected intercourse than sex with a condom (1), they remain the second most popular form of contraception with a 22% use rate, trailing female sterilization by 1% (2). Empirically, the antiquated form of contraception and STI protection — King Minos of Crete is the first documented user of an animal intestine penile sheath, circa 3000 B.C. (3) — is incompatible with natural desire. Yet humans are creatures of habit. So, in an ever-modernizing world, we continue a ritual that predates monotheism.

The perceived benefits of condom use in the 21st century have dwindled thanks to medical and scientific advancements. The methods of pregnancy prevention are plentiful. Spermicidal intrauterine devices, preventative and curative pills, and abortions, to name a few, are readily accessible across the developed world (the United States is rapidly losing its status in that category courtesy of its government and people’s aversion to reproductive healthcare). Regarding the prevention of STIs, hoi polloi’s fears are no longer substantiated as most of life-threatening ones have been eradicated. Even the most lethal STD, HIV, is treatable with PrEP, which when taken daily reduces the risk of transmission and progression to AIDS by 99% per the CDC (4); thus empowering patients, who hitherto were given a death sentence, to live long, healthy, sexually active lives. Gonorrhea, chlamydia, HPV, herpes, syphilis, and other garden variety ailments are curable via mundane antibiotics and over-the-counter remedies.

The mainstream sentiment towards condoms is regressive and unproductive. Not only does it equally inhibit male and female coital enjoyment, it acts as a crutch that holds humanity back from medical advancements that would lead to its obsolescence.

Overreliance on condoms also paves the way for far more sinister threats than that of a subpar orgasm. Proponents of anti-abortion and other puritanical perspectives weaponise the tool by arguing that its preventative nature eliminates the need for corrective ones; an argument as absurd as being against treating victims of automotive disasters because of the efficacy of seatbelts.

One of the largest beneficiaries of the condom industrial complex is a usual suspect, the fossil fuel industry. 80% of prophylactic condoms are made with rubber latex and 15% are composed of polyurethane. The remaining 5% of the market is the natural alternative to the plastic product; natural membrane condoms, commonly made of lamb intestinal cecum (5). Both industries, fossil fuels and industrial farming, have ravaged our planet to a nauseating extent. Destroyed ecosystems, widespread extinction, environmental pollution, and even war have presented themselves as manufactured existential threats, primarily resulting from capital’s relentless need for growth. Condoms sit among factory-farmed meat and gasoline at the table of products used to line the pockets of Mother Nature’s most notorious rapists.

Active and passive resistance to fascism is possible at the individual level by the daily choices we make. The efficacy of the anti-colonial Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement in threatening capital and state-funded violence has forced 38 U.S. states to pass legislation banning it; proof that consumer choices are impactful. Societal rejection of Trojan, Durex, and the like can pave the way to proletarian liberation.