The risk I am taking is he will leave me if I refuse sex. If he does leave, it saves me the heartache. If he doesn’t, I have a boyfriend worthy of me. A boyfriend worthy of me is able to stand the test of time.

Surely you must differentiate between self-inflicted diseases vs. those that are more by chance.  I don’t think it’s just STD from unsafe sex that gets this.  Diabetes from obesity, lung cancer from chronic smoking – I think it’s human nature to look at these different than say a child who develops cystic fibrosis or some such. It could be dangerous to deflect blame and responsibility for those that can be avoided to some degree.

Here’s the viewpoint of someone who’s been very conservative personally: I do think people need to be careful about multiple sexual partners, not necessarily for moral reasons, but because of the very real risk of STIs.  HOWEVER, I think STIs are over-stigmatized in our society.  They are simply a class of infections transmitted in a particular way.  If some of the stigma were removed, then it’s likely that people would be more vigilant about being checked themselves and about sharing this knowledge with partners. 

Placing a stigma on any kind of disease has, historically, always hampered the progress of preventing or curing it – because far too much energy is put into the blaming and shaming and hiding, and not into the real need to share information.  I think we should be aware that these types of infections exist, they are common, they are persistent in some cases and temporary in others, and they are not in and of themselves a reason to shame anyone. 

You cherry-picked there, as I noticed you chose to ignore the other examples of undesirable qualities.  I think an objective observer would say it made your argument look weaker.

@ Katrina 153

As a conservative dude who does keep his pants zipped, you still do not seem to respect our opinions, as you’ve attacked me is several threads.  I have to agree with St. Stephen as this clearly has struck some sort of nerve with you.  I certainly didn’t mean to personally offend you and I doubt the other men did.  Please don’t take things so personally.

@ Evan 154

I think you were trying to be sarcastic, but women and men ARE very different in many respects.  I think when it comes to sex, certainly so.  That said, I don’t condone promiscuity for either men or women. Also, I think your example is a bit extreme and not representative of most women.  Most of the single women I’ve known certainly had their “wild phase” and engaged in casual sex outside of monogomous relationships.  Also to be clear – and in reference to you other thread about Alice/Dylan – many women engage in sex before a relationship becomes monogomous.  For instance Alice did, in hopes it would go further, but it didn’t.  I think it would be disengenous to put those under the same umbrella as a person who waits for a true commitment.  Hope is not a real good strategy.

I don’t move the same circles as those guys do either, obviously so from my vantage point there is plenty of fish.  

Blonde lovers don’t date me so the guys I know love brunettes and brunettes only.  To each their own and let’s leave it at that. 

Thank God, they don’t.  Even I have dated conservative Republicans who don’t think like you do.  Yes 50/50 is about the best bet you can expect.  I would assume, most guys who really like a woman and find a whole package in a woman won’t care about that.  Just my experience.