By Sarah DuRussel-Weston, a member of the SWARM Youth Council for Policy Change and graduate student at the University of South Carolina

I’m not sure if you’ve heard the buzz about bees at USC… (Sorry, I just CANNOT ignore a pun when I see one!). Students With A Responsible Message (S.W.A.R.M) have established a presence on campus, and we’ve been awfully busy making a name for ourselves. Since we began meeting in January of 2012, we’ve had 7 meetings already, and we will have 3 more before the semester is through.

As mentioned in a previous blog, we had a Film Screening where students from all sorts of majors and walks of life came to watch “Let’s Talk About Sex.”  SWARM USC met up with the rest of the SWARM Council at Bee Day where we talked to our legislators about the common sense about teaching Comprehensive Sex Education- which we commanded the attention of senators and representatives. We recently met up at Walk-A-Mile In Her Shoes which rose awareness for Sexual Assault and Rape Prevention. We represented the necessity for Comprehensive Sex Education in South Carolina Public Schools at Project Condom USC. We participated and helped out our council members from Clemson and Converse at Project Condom Upstate. The list goes on and on. I’m telling you: this campus organization is already getting a life of its own. 

The officials have been selected for next (though we’ll let them introduce themselves in a future blog.). The Buzz is growing. Students at USC are joining the conversation to only fund Comprehensive Sex Education in South Carolina with the 11,000+ Tell Them members and the other SWARM groups sprouting out all across the state.

We may have a road ahead of us to complete this necessary milestone in South Carolina, but we’re not backing down. Make note of SWARM. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of us.  We’ve only gotten started.”

By Sarah DuRussel-Weston, a member of the SWARM Youth Council for Policy Change and graduate student at the University of South Carolina

One of the highlights of the S.W.A.R.M meet-ups this year has been a film screening of the documentary “Let’s Talk About Sex”, followed by a discussion led by Tell Them staff. The film explores how we view sex in the context of our families and the media. The documentary takes you into the homes of families across the U.S and Northern Europe. 

The difference in the parents’ styles of talking to their kids about sex is almost as large as the Atlantic Ocean which separates the two continents.  Here there’s this negative stigma about sex.  There, it’s respected but embraced.  You know what the outcome is?  There is a shockingly high rate of parents in the states who have no idea just how sexual their kids are. They say: “Don’t do it,” and the youth reply with “Ok.”  The problem is that kids in households of all backgrounds in the States are crossing their fingers and doing it behind their parents’ backs.  In Europe the families have open conversations. The parents treat their children as young adults. They have honest conversations. They talk about morality, and they talk about respecting yourself.  I think the parents generally must simply respect their children more, because they teach them how to protect themselves with contraceptives more. A large point to recognize is that the US has much higher rates of teen pregnancy and STI transmissions than they do in Europe. I think that means that those Europeans are onto something…. Respect and Knowledge!!!

Anyways, we talked about the movie with the college students and faculty that came to watch the movie. During the conversation afterwards you could tell some people were uncomfortable with being as “liberal” as those Europeans, but they also seemed to get the point.  You could see the wheels spinning in their heads.  They were challenging their perspective on frank conversations- “What if my parents would have had such open conversations with me?”

SWARM being a program with the objective to create a shift in cultural perspectives on Sex Education towards accurate and comprehensive information, I think we hit our goal.  They were thinking about what they were taught.  They were challenging themselves to question if other more truthful and honest sex education methods were more successful than the “Just don’t do it” method so many of them received growing up.

“Let’s Talk About Sex” is available for sale online.  You can find it on Amazon, but if you’re interested, I know where you can probably get the hook-up.  Contact Tell Them and tell them you want to see it, or you want to show it to a group.  I bet they’ll be glad to assist you.

Some people oppose birth control. Their ideology equates all contraception with abortion. They refute the facts of mainstream medicine, claim that serious female health problems can be cured by having children, and see sexually transmitted diseases as just punishment. They want to make birth control illegal. The problem is some of them actually could.

Contraception is basic, essential healthcare. 88% of Americans support access to birth control, and 99% of sexually active American women have used some form of birth control during their lives. In fact, leading medical groups in the United States, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, support access to reliable contraception as part of basic healthcare.
 
Access to these options and the medical facts to help decide which type of contraception is right for you is a natural right. Women need to be given the most accurate information so that they can make informed decisions about their health. Any legislation that interferes with the relationship between physicians, nurses, clinicians and their patients is a restriction of rights that is unacceptable.

Such legislative efforts may include:

• • Imposing reporting requirements on physicians, nurses and clinicians which could remove the basic right of privacy when dealing with medical records.
• • Conscience clauses, which could create roadblocks to women trying to access birth control and other reproductive health services;
• • Mandates which could impose requirements upon women seeking reproductive health services.
•   

We support legislation and state appropriations that advance family planning, contraception and reproductive health education in schools, communities, and clinics.

I am not going to lie. I used to be afraid of condoms. Terrified may be a better word. I should probably clarify that last statement though. I was not actually afraid of condoms or being around condoms, I was afraid of what people would think if they saw me with condoms. How would people react? What would they think?

It was only later that I realized something, why did I care what they thought? It was my choice to protect myself. It was my choice to buy condoms. I should not care what the pharmacist thought, or the other people in line, or even my parents or my roommate thought. I should not be afraid of condoms. I should not seek to hide that I own condoms. It is my choice.

The fact that I have access to them and can easily get them is something more than others individuals have. The fact that I have overcame by fear of condoms and contraceptive is also something more than others have. I have learned however something interesting throughout my last year of reproductive right involvement: PEOPLE WANT CONDOMS! They want access to condoms. They want the option to get condoms without the social stigma we have attached with condoms. How do I know this? Due to the fact over the last 9 months, I have given away about 1,000 condoms, supported through the Great American Condom Campaign. I have no doubt I could have given away even more of these condoms if I had access to them! People are more than excited to have condoms and take condoms if they are provided to them. Whether it is during a class presentation, an organization meeting, or even a tabling event people take condoms. They are excited to have the option to take them in what they view is a safe environment. To have access to them without the social stigma attached to go and get them themselves. I have even had friends call and text me to ask me if I have any condoms and if they could come and get them. Now, while I may be open about anything and everything many of my friends are not. To have them know that they can get access to condoms is not only a relief to me but also I assume to them.

Getting anything for free is nice, so getting condoms for free is of course nice as well. I believe that it is more than getting some for free though that drives so many people to take condoms. The social stigma attached to buy condoms and other forms of contraceptive in social settings. As recent comments by individuals with a media presence have shown there are a variety of negative stigmas that are attempted to be associated with individuals who use contraceptive. It is not just enough for us to give out contraceptive or to have contraceptive in stores. We must seek to remove the negative social stigma attached with buying it. We must seek to make everyone feel comfortable buying. To make buying condoms and other forms of contraceptive buy making it like buying milk. It needs to be treated as something that is not hidden behind walls and curtains and in the back of stores, but something that is openly discussed and treated without negative stigma.

This is of course something that will not easily be done. It is something that will require time and something will require us as a culture to rethink the way we discuss contraceptives and contraceptive use. This is something that we as a S.W.A.R.M. at USC are happy to see students be actively involved in and actively support. As we change the hearts and mind of the youth of our nation the culture will shift with it. We must however continue to fight and continue to actively promote the right of the individual to choose. To not alienate the individuals who choose to use birth control and not allow contraceptive use to be viewed as something that you should be ashamed of.

Alright, for those of you who are just hearing about Project Condom for the first time I’ll give a brief explanation:  it is a fashion show where groups take colored non-lubricated condoms and apply them to outfits.  Models wearing the outfits compete in a fashion show where they are judged on the design, the message that accompanies the outfit, and an explanation of how the design represents the particular message given.

Project Condom USC got student groups from their campus that represented feminists, LGBT, cultural diversity groups, sororities, and fraternities.  Each group that participated had very different designs.  Some were conservative and others a little sexy.  It was a great opportunity for each group to announce their voice of reason to the audience of a maxed out a ballroom of over 500 guests!

Though for many of the participants the show was an opportunity to show off their skills of creating beautiful dresses, the mission was to educate audience and reduce the negative stigma condoms have.

Project Condom is by far the best outreach production I’ve participated in that educates young people about the importance of regular contraceptive use.  This is why SWARM and Tell Them are hosting Project Condom Upstate.  If you weren’t able to attend the Project Condom USC, you should not let the opportunity pass you by to participate and/or attend the show in Spartanburg on April 10th.

• • She is an Assistant Professor in Health Promotion, Education and Behavior and an Affiliate Faculty member in the Women’s Studies Department at the University of South Carolina.
• • She teaches numerous courses (Social and Physical Environment Interventions in Health Promotion, Planning Health Promotion Programs, and Community Health Development just to name a few),
• • She writes scholarly articles (General Findings of a Population-Based HPV Telephone Survey of Women in South Carolina, HPV Vaccine Acceptability, Barriers, and Information Needs of Women Living in the Rural South, and Cervical Cancer Disparities in South Carolina: An update of early detection, special programs, descriptive epidemiology, and emerging directions, again, just to name a few),
• • She is currently researching community-based colorectal cancer prevention opportunities in South Carolina.

Somewhere in her busy schedule, Heather finds time to be an advocate for women’s health and helps spread the word about the need for better reproductive health policies.

Heather was one of Tell Them’s first followers on Twitter, and she continuously retweets and responds to our posts. In February, 27 of her tweets were about reproductive health issues and linked her followers to more information. Her smiling face sends us messages about new facts and ideas, and she is a blast to follower on Twitter because of her insights and creative posts.

Heather also took time to come be a Tell Them spokesman for our new Rights At Risk campaign. She spoke about recent actions to pass personhood laws in South Carolina and clarified that birth control pills prevent pregnancy from occurring.

Heather is an incredible woman who spends her days trying to make our state healthier. She is a phenomenal advocate and a dear friend, and we are thankful to have her as a voice of reason.

You can follow Dr. Heather Brandt on Twitter at @BlondeScientist

Such was the case at the University of South Carolina. Sarah, the other S.W.A.R.M. Member on USC’s campus, and I had spent a majority of the fall semester giving presentations, tabling events, and thinking of ways to get our fellow classmates involved. Of course the question existed would they even want to be involved? Could we find people who cared? Throughout the fall semester though we thought about these questions and finally decided to go for it. We spent the appropriate amount of time setting up an organization, registering the organization, writing bylaws, finding an advisor, you know, all of that fun bureaucratic stuff universities make you do to exist.

We did it all. We hung up flyers and waited.  Then came the moment of truth, would anyone come to our meeting? Would anyone care to share up? Well they did. They came with friends, they came alone, they dropped by to see what was going on. The energy was everywhere. Here were students who were interested in the same things we were. Here were students who wanted to make a change, to have their voices heard. They recognized that this is the world they are going to inherit. The decisions happening now will affect them as they grow, as they start families, as they enter into the job market.  We had planned on having a brief informational meeting. What instead happened was a dialogue. A discussion on where they wanted the organization to go. What they wanted to accomplish, what they wanted to see done. They volunteered at that first meeting, after only knowing each less than an hour, to work on a condom dress, to table events, to host meetings and screenings. Here were individuals like us who wanted to make a change, our fellow students who saw something wrong with the system and who want to work to actively alter it. All they needed was a vehicle to do so. All they needed was to find other individuals who sought the same things they did.

It is easy when you are passionate about a cause to begin to feel like you are all alone. In the vast realm of the college experience it is easy to think that no one else cares about or has time to care about anything else but what they are doing. I am sure though if you look around you will find like minds. In fact, I encourage you to do so. You may think you will be the only one who shows up to the first meeting. You will be surprised though how quickly you run out of materials to pass out. Speaking of that, always bring extras.  Just because you may feel like you are the only one who cares, you are not. There are plenty of other students out there who just need a way to interact and engage with one another in order to cause a commotion on your campus.

At USC we are excited to be the first reproductive health organization on campus. We are even more excited to see what we can do and how we can make a change in our community. The best thing about having an organization on campus is that it means long after we are graduated, Sarah and I, that the organization will still be there and people will still be seeking to make a change in the way people talk about and view sex and reproductive health.

What’s Valentine’s Day for? Ok, we all know it’s really just another American capitalistic holiday. GreenHouseManagementOnline.com expects Americans to dish out over 15 Billion Dollars this year for the big day. But, why are we spending so much on chocolate that’s hand-made by local bougie candy shops, flowers grown by women in South America who aren’t protected by the fertilizers and poisons that produce perfect blossoms, and slapstick “chick flicks” that really just idolize the helpless dame and the iconic hero? I have a suggestion: why don’t you do something that’s a little less tangible, but a bit more meaningful?

The Vagina Monologues are a series of scripts taken from interviews that are now read out loud by women. The scripts share stories about self-discovery, romance, pain, and triumph. Some will make you laugh and others make you squirm. If you watch the monologues beginning to end with a special woman in your life, I bet she’ll appreciate you a little bit more, and you will certainly appreciate her a little more. If we’re going to live in a sexist society, which we do, let’s turn our attention to the female gender and praise her for all her glory, recognize her for the trials inferior beings have put her through, and celebrate the successes each woman has made in her life.

If you haven’t been to the Vagina Monologues in the past, get ready and go this year: below are the dates of scheduled programs at various college campuses across the state that are open to the public.

College of Charleston- Physician’s Memorial Auditorium 66 George St., Charleston, SC, 29242: February 9th, 10th, and 11th at 7pm

University of South Carolina- School of Law Auditorium 701 Main St., Columbia, SC, 29208: February 10th, 11th, and 12th at 8:00pm

Furman University- McAlister Auditorium 3300 Poinsett Highway, Greenville, SC, 29613: February 29th and March 1st at 8:00pm

Dr. Debbie Billings, Assistant Professor in the Arnold School of Public Health and Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of South Carolina, spoke about the Tell Them campaign to increase accessbility of reproductive health education and services to all citizens in South Carolina.

Click here to listen to Debbie’s fantastic interview.

I wish I could say that the person who asked me this question had been living under a rock for the better part of the last thirty years (which itself would be a feet since they are only 19), but no. This question was actually asked to me by someone who I consider to be a very intelligent individual, they were not taught it in school and they never had the opportunity to talk about it with their parents. I wish I could also say that this is the only person who has ever asked me this, yet sadly I have been asked this, and other questions, far to often by otherwise intellectual college aged individuals.

Before I go on, I would like to point out I do know that you cannot “get AIDS”: you catch the virus HIV and then this becomes AIDS. This is a fact I point out to the many of people who ask this question. Of course, they generally do not know there is a difference between the two, or they believe them to be two distinctly different things. How is that? Why is this? How is it that intelligent individuals do not know about diseases and complications that can affect their body? The answer is complex, yet actually very simple. We do not talk about them. In fact, we are ashamed to talk about them. We in South Carolina are afraid of sex.

When you think about it though, the fact we are afraid of sex in South Carolina is actually okay. After all, no one in this grand state is going to have sex until they have married their opposite sex partner (who is also a virgin!)in a lavish white wedding for the ages, and ride away onto years of blissful marriage where they will have 2.5 children. We don’t have underage moms. People with HIV/AIDS? Nope! STI’s? (not to be confused, as did one individual who will remain nameless, with STP’s, a rather delicious sandwich at a local sandwich shop here in Columbia, but I digress.). We actually live in a rather perfect state, it is all those other states, one would be led to believe “those yankee states”, that have the problems.

The fact is though, we have all of this in South Carolina. We have the nations 3rd highest gonorrhea rate. We have the 9th highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation. Over 7,000 people living with AIDS. Oh, and yeah, 53% of South Carolina highschool students have reported having sex.* We however denying it, we do not talk about it. We do not allow our children the opportunity to learn about it, to make informed decisions. I recall one participant at a presentation who asked me, point blank, “Wait? Are you saying I can get HIV from swallowing?”. It is not that this person is in anyway not intelligent, they are after all attending a University, it is that they are uniformed. They have never been made privy to this information.

In order make South Carolina a better place, for all people, we have to be open, we have to be honest. We have to admit we have sex. I have sex. My friends have sex. Obviously at some point at time my parents had sex. I’m betting at some point in time your parents had sex too. We need to be honest with ourselves. Our denial is not making things better, if a building is on fire denying it is on fire does not do anything. The same is true for sexual health education. We must make it available. By denying accurate, fact based sexual health education in schools we are denying the youth of this state, and the nation, the ability to make informed decisions. Not only that by not teaching it in schools, we are furthering the belief that it is a taboo topic. This denial creates shame. This shame prevents parents having discussions with their children and children having discussions with their parents. This then creates a generation who does not have access to factual based knowledge that can help them, advise them, and provide them factual information about what can, and what may, help them in making informed consensual decisions.

It’s time to wake up. It’s time to see that change needs to be made. We need to admit to ourselves, South Carolinians have sex.

Aaron is a member of the SWARM Council. To contact Aaron or learn more about SWARM, please contact Tim Allen, Youth Activist Coordinator at tallen@newmorningfoundation.org.