Pet Peeve: Condom (Mis)Use

Since my site is geared toward recommendations, most of my posts are about books I enjoyed. I assure you, though, for every book I recommend, I've probably given another book away to someone who will (hopefully) like it better than I did. I choose not to keep books for a variety of reasons.

Misuse of condoms is one of my biggest pet peeves. If a book contains this problem, it has to do some real convincing in other areas to stick around my house. I know these are romance novels and not biology textbooks, but I have a hard time suspending my disbelief on this issue. While characters are connecting on the page, I've been pulled out of the story and can't help but wonder about their previous partners or worry why they didn't talk about STD's and BC before they got busy. I'm sure discussing STD's and unplanned pregnancy isn't sexy, but neither is getting them!

Just last week, I read a book where the couple had an unprotected one night stand and never talked or worried about pregnancy or STD's either before or after The Deed. This is fiction, not fantasy, people. I read about twenty more pages to see if this issue was addressed and then swapped the book to a more forgiving reader.

I'm also have problems with characters who almost don't get the condom on, or who don't use it during oral activities, or who act like its only purpose is to protect from babies instead of HIV or a dozen other STD's. Trust me, if I were banging a man with a history of one night stands (like so many romance heroes seem to have), especially if it included regular visits to sex professionals (as in another book I recently swapped), pregnancy would be least of my concerns in the sexually-transmitted department.

To date, the ONLY romance I've read that dealt with the possibility of STD's was Contact by Evelyn Vaughn. Granted, the guy waited until time to put on the condom to ask about her sexual history, and the only reason he mentioned he had been tested was because of a cheatin' ex-wife, perpetuating the myth that only "bad" people get STD's instead of the nice normal people you find in romance novels, but I was still glad to see it in print. (Yet another reason that is a great book!)

This issue doesn't always determine whether I'll keep a book (one of my favorite authors has Condom Issues in almost every one of her books that I've read), but it is important to me as a reader that people make safe and purposeful and adult decisions about their health instead of just thinking with their, well, you know.