July 5, 2010 • 30 mins
Condoms have a surprisingly long and storied history, as well as lots of fun nicknames! Molly and Cristen take a detailed look at these popular prophylactics, past and present, in this episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You?
From housetop Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Kristen. We have decided
(00:21):
to title this podcast Condoms Condoms Condoms, perhaps the most
clever episode title and the Mom Stuff catalog. Clever or lazy, yes,
but you know that's what we're gonna talk about. It
really does sum up what what I think this episode
is gonna cover. Yeah, because we're gonna touch you. We're
gonna touch on a lot of different aspects of condoms
(00:41):
and uh we we didn't know how else to sum
it up except for gandoms, gandoms condoms. So let's start
off with the thing that kind of sparked my interest
in this podcast, particularly at this time of the year.
Is the World Cup is going on. Yes, the World
Cup happening in South Africa. And one thing that you
might have noticed if you've been following World Cup news
(01:04):
online at all, is that a lot of the coverage
either deals with who has beaten whom on the field
or condoms. I know those are the two main trends
emerging from this World Cup in South Africa, especially in
the lead up to the games, in which they were
talking about you know, how can we are public health
(01:24):
officials were like, how can we bring attention to the
to the AIDS epidemic that is raging in South Africa. Right,
I didn't realize that South Africa has the world's highest
incident of HIV and AIDS, with five point seven million
out of its nearly fifty million residents afflicted, which is
roughly twelve percent of the population, and in some regions
(01:47):
one in five adults is HIV positive. So kind of
the public health goal with the month long World Cup
is to distribute one billion condoms throughout South South Africa,
and different countries have donated condoms. For instance, the UK
has sent over forty two million condoms UM and even
(02:08):
the President Jacob Zuma has gotten involved with this by
a by getting tested for HIV earlier the spring and
publicly disclosing you know, his negative status to try to
UM you know, remove the stigma from getting from getting tested.
Because not only do they need to distribute more condoms,
they need to have more people getting tested UM and
(02:30):
more people treated so with the eyes of the world
on South Africa for this month, that was sort of
the impetus for, you know, making this big condom push.
They're trying to get a lot of soccer stars involved
with pushing for testing, pushing for using a condom. Some
people are criticizing the effort a little bit though, because
of the immense number of prostitutes that are descending on
(02:51):
South Africa. Uh, in case the soccer games are enough
entertainment for you, I guess you could use prostitute. But
you know, then people are saying, is this just going
to encourage prostitution? Uh? Is it only helping the tourists
and not helping the South Africans Because what they were
hopings that when South Africa had all this you know,
attention on them, they would be the ones to be
(03:12):
learning more about safe sex. Right because South Africa's Central
Drug Authority estimated that about forty thousand prostitutes were expected
to arrive. And these aren't even prostitutes who were already
in South Africa. These are actually prostitues coming in specifically
for the World Cut Molly, like you mentioned and um
and we we found a blog post on the f
(03:34):
word by Amy Claire, and she made a good point
that while you know, it's it's a good thing that
the South American South African, I should say, government is
trying to distribute one billion condoms and we have the
male soccer players out here, you know, preaching the gospel
of safe sex, but at the same time it's ignoring
(03:54):
the fact that women in South Africa are actually far
more likely to contract HIV UM not just because it's
easier for a woman to contract it, but also because
of the higher incidents of um, you know, force for
sex and if we're talking about prostitution and sex trafficking
going on as well, there's you know that it's a
(04:15):
it's a more complex social issue than just getting men
to to wrap it up right. And since rape is
such a big problem in South Africa, there has been
one interesting condom story coming out with all this World
Cup stuff, and that is the distribution or the potential
distribution of the rape Ax condom. This is a condom
that was developed by Dr Sennett Eller's in two thousand
(04:36):
seven and she's been kind of fine tuning it and
she wanted to distribute thirty thousand of them. Essentially, a
woman puts uh this condom, it's it's kind of shaped
like a tampon into her vagina and then if she's raped,
these um like claws clenched onto the man's penis and
stops the rape in progress. Although this has been again
(04:56):
obviously you might imagine somewhat criticized because that just teaching
women to expect to be raped. Is this really the
most effective form of you know, stopping rape. And if
a woman is being attached by multiple men, won't this
just cause more violence for her in the long run.
It's very controversial, but you know, it's a problem. The
rape is a problem in South Africa. So, like we said,
(05:18):
there's just a whole host of condom stories from the
mild manner, by which I would count the uh, the
story that after South Korea one, uh, they just condoms
sales skyrocketed. And the stories have really ranged from these,
you know, very violent stories about rape acts condoms to
the even more mild mannered stories such as the one
(05:38):
that came out about skyrocketing condom sales when South Korea
beat Greece. Yeah, apparently fans bought five times more condoms uh,
when South Korea beat the euro two thousand four champions
Greece than during their lack luster two thousand six World
(06:00):
Up performance. Well, they also bought a lot of fried chicken,
according to the paper. So you know, condoms and fried chicken.
I mean, that's that's a way to celebrate, a way
to celebrate, and I can't dison that. But but going
back though too, Really the crux of the whole South
Africa World Cup condom story, if you will, it all
relates back to AIDS in tackling this issue of controlling
(06:23):
HIV and controlling AIDS and bringing those numbers down. And
if you look at the history of condom use um,
condoms really became i guess, far more widely used and
more popular in the eighties when the threat of AIDS
really came to the forefront. But if we go far
(06:44):
back in time a few centuries, it was another std
that actually brought condoms to UH into more prominent use,
and that was syphilis. Yeah, syphilis came from the New
World in the Western Hemisphere to Europe and Asia during
(07:07):
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Now, at the time,
syphilis had no cure and it was causing problems like dementia,
sores and death. So obviously people are like, we've gotta
gotta get control on the cyphlis problem. And they finally
figured out that it was the sex that was causing it,
and that's when the condom first became a tool for
disease prevention. UH. In fifty six, Gabriel A. Fallopio, the
(07:30):
same fellow who discovered the fallopian tubes, penned the oldest
known written description of the condom to recommend it as
a siphilis preventive that we have other other fellows at
the time saying that it's just a sign of immorality.
It's basically the same argument that's going on today if
you give out a condom doesn't encourage promiscuity or as
a protective and that debate was going on as earliest
(07:51):
fifty six, right, But the actual existence of you know,
condom like prophylactics goes back way beyond full O Pio uh.
And in fact, the oldest known image of a sheathed
penis is found in cave painting Steadiu as far back
is fifteen thousand BC. So even even the cave folk work,
(08:14):
we're practicing safe sex. Well, now that's the thing is
they're not sure they were sheathing their penis specifically for
some sort of sexual protection, whether it was just ornamental,
if it was some form of costume. They do have
all these pictures dating back, as he said to, you know,
just centuries and centuries ago, but they're not sure exactly
when people figured out exactly what the condom could do
(08:37):
in terms of protecting against UH, pregnancy and other diseases, right,
because it hasn't been that long in medical history that
we've really understood how we go from intercourse to having
a baby, small baby. It's not a stork. What it's
not a story. It's not a stork, Molly. You heard
it here and now on the podcast. But I do
(08:58):
like this little tidbit. And ancient Japan some men used thin,
rigid sheaves called kabuto gata, which were made from horns
during intercourse, and that just sounds painful. I don't really
I can't really work out of my head how exactly
that worked, but I'm sure it's on the internet somewhere. Yeah,
maybe we should google probably not safe for work image. Yeah, um,
(09:22):
but you know, they do know despite the fact not
knowing exactly when people figured out that you know they
were protecting against sperm ing an egg. We do know
that condoms were wide spread in Europe by the time
of let's say Shakespeare. Yes, the first documented condoms were
actually handstone pieces of linen that fit over either the
entire penis, over the tip, or into the urethra, and
(09:43):
they would be held together with a with a little
draw string like ribbon. That's my favorite fun fact about
ancient condoms. Draw strings. Yeah, if they would tie their
condoms up with ribbons and uh. And then by the
mid seventeen hundreds, people started using condoms made from animal
membranes that were again still tied with men. Uh, still
tied with ribbons and condom makers oftentimes we're also glove makers,
(10:08):
which explains why you know they were able to make
such fine fitting condoms. I wonder if they were the
first ones who came up with no glove, no love.
Probably not. Just thought I'd throw that off, But you
know what, it was kind of an intense process we're
reading about, and we should mention that. Right now, we're
using an article it's on our website, how Stuff Works
(10:29):
dot com, written by Tracy V. Wilson, and uh, we're
sort of just going through it because it's got so
many condom fun facts like in this one that making
uh you know, they were using animal guts. Making guts
into condoms required cleaning, scraping, exposure to burning sulfur, inflating, drying, molding, cutting,
and sewing. Yea. Quite it was quite an expensive product
(10:52):
to make, which is why. And it was also you know,
not the best product because they're still fine tuning their
technique and uh and they were often full of holes,
right and uh, people reuse them, which you know, it's
sort of a big no no in in the condom world. Yeah.
But then once we have the discovery of the vulcanization
of rubber in eighteen thirty nine and we have the
(11:17):
arrival of rubber on the scene. Uh, men started getting
these custom fit condoms, reusable rubber condoms from their doctor,
which were considerably thicker and rougher than condoms used today.
And some of them would actually just cover the tip
of the penisum. But they were often like you said,
(11:38):
with those uh, those old kind of the glovemakers condoms,
no glove, no love um. They were reusable and wash
and war but because of the use of oil based lubricants,
it often broke down the rubber because, as you can imagine,
they needed assistance with the actual intercourse mechanics, you know,
(11:59):
considering the of the roughness and thickness of these rubber condoms.
So that was eight thirty nine. Let's skip ahead to
nineteen nineteen when we've got old Frederick Killian to thank
for using uh latex instead of rubber. Frederick Killian, the
father of the latex condom. I would love it if
(12:21):
that was on my gravest stone. I mean, my name's
not Frederick Killian. Everything that that part Molly Advincive, father
of the latex condom, I'll remember that. I mean, I'm
just throwing it off there. Seems like I could be
fun So yeah, we have. We've got the thinner, cheaper
latex condoms that also have a longer shelf life and
fun fact, the expiration period today for latex condoms, Molly,
(12:45):
do you know, uh ten years, five years throw away
all those old Denier condoms you got, Molly. Um. But
even today, we still have developments in the condom material goals,
which include polymers like Polli Supreme and Polly You're a thing,
But doctors still recommend you going the old latex route
(13:08):
unless you have some kind of latex allergy. And of
course you can also always use the quote unquote cheap
skin condoms that are actually made from intestinal linings, not
not sheep's, not actual sheep skin. But you know, by
and large, it seems that in the world we're using
latex condoms. They make up more than of condom sales worldwide. Now,
(13:30):
the average condom I was interested in this. I was
kind of curious about this, Molly. The average condom is
six point two nine inches long and two inches wide.
And what I did not know, Molly, is that many
nations actually set standards that govern those exact dimensions and materials.
(13:52):
Governments take condoms very seriously. And I also didn't realize
that and not and it makes sense once I read it.
Many nations actually classify condoms as drugs because of their
role in preventing diseases. So that's the reason why you'll
see condom ads and packaging um carrying specific language or
warnings in the same way that you know what, like
(14:13):
Adville or Thailand all might. But you know what, Crystal,
let's take a step back. Let's look at condoms before
they get into the store before they've got all that
packaging and specific language. I want to go back to
when you've just got some rubber from a tree, some
some un you know, just a bat of latex. You'll
do with it. You want to find out where condoms
(14:34):
come from? My idea. You're blown my mind with where
babies come from, so I might as well cover where
the condoms do well. Get ready, Molly, it's a stork
the condom store. The condom store brings the condom. No,
it doesn't. They're made in factories. Is all of our
smart listeners? No, So, just like in the early days,
we've got latex that comes from tapping rubber trees in Brazil,
(14:54):
Southeast Asia or West Africa. Now it's mixed up with
some other things like anti fungal and antibacterial compounds, zinc
oxide which will accelerate the vulcanization process, UH stabilizers, anticoagulants, preservatives,
maybe some pigments. If if you're just going crazy with things,
but when you add all these things, that's what makes
(15:14):
it uh not natural. You know, if you're using like
an intestine, then you know it breaks down, but you're
adding all those essentially preservatives, it makes the shelf life
of the condom longer. But it also means that you
shouldn't flush it down the toilet because it cannot break
down on its own right. These are not condoms are
not biodegradable, So like your tampons, keep your condoms out
(15:36):
of the toilet. Uh. And some people have said, you know,
we need to figure out how to make sex greener.
We need to figure out how to make you know,
safe sex not something that hurts the environment. But that's
it's a topic for another day and time. But to
continue on the condoms journey from batom latex to the
to the store. Uh, They've got these things called formers,
and they're all suspended from a conveyor belt and essentially
(15:58):
it's like a glass or ceramic old that comes down,
is dipped into the vat of latex that kind of
turns around so it gets coated evenly and it comes
back up. And I kind of compare this in my head,
Cristin to like when you go to Dairy Queen and
you're getting a dipped coney, You know how you just
kind of have to dip it real fast into the
chocolate and come back out so it'll dry all evenly.
That's sort of how I picture this part of the
(16:20):
process going in in a factory. It's like a bunch
of ice cream cone is just dipping down getting the covering,
and they do a few a few dips so that
they've got enough enough thickness right there, and then they'll
put them in an oven and dry them. Yeah. And
so once we have basically the you know, the condom prototype,
(16:42):
they will have lublicants applied to them. It's usually the
last step before the condoms go into their foil wrappers,
and they're actually sandwich between the two layers of laminated
foil so as to keep out air and ultraviolet light
or else the condoms will deteriorate. And because you know,
even though they're not naturally biodegradable, they will degrade after
(17:04):
a period of time. And that's why condoms have expiration
dates that you should pay attention to unless five years. Yes,
so five years unless you want breaking, slipping, leaking, or
more terrible things happening. Um. And you also, even though
you want to be careful when you're opening up a
condom package, shoe and the heat of passion will just
just tear it open with your teeth or your hands.
You might rip the condom, you know, and take It's
(17:26):
all right, things, just take your time open that coon delicate.
But one thing that men, especially you need to stop
doing is carrying your condoms around in your wallet. Yeah.
It'll lead to degrade. Yeah, because their heat sensitive and
so you know, if it's hanging out in your wallet,
your wallets, in your back pocket, there's extra heat there.
(17:48):
It's just it's not you know, keep them, keep them
tucked away in a drawer in a in a cool,
dark place for maximum quality assurance. But speaking of quality assurance,
only one thing we haven't said is quality testing. Because
I don't know about you, but I've heard those horror
stories about condoms. You know, you put them under a
microscope and they're just full of holes, and you know
(18:09):
this is it's just a condoms sort of hoax. Um.
But they actually go through some pretty rigorous testing. Yeah,
I think it'd be pretty fun to be a condom
tester if I can't be the father of the latex
condom like Frederick Killian. They do a lot of uh
strength testing to to test how far it can stretch,
how far it can inflate. They fill them with water
(18:31):
to see if any any it springs any leaks. Yeah,
and unfortunately I don't have water bloom fights after that,
but instead they will visually inspect for leaks as well
as rub them on absorbent paper so that if it's
just such a miniscule link, but when they see that
drop of water on the paper, they'll know this batch
is a no go. So now that we've gotten we've
got the condoms in the packages. You know, we've gone
(18:53):
to the drug store. We picked up the pack of
insert brand name here condom. Well, no, wait, let me
stop you there, Kristen, because I do know that a
lot of people get really nervous about going to the
drug store to get the condoms. Do you think between
the two of us we have any tips on how
to make that a less stressful experience. Well, first of all,
you want to drive about ten miles out of town
(19:17):
and uh, I have a large pair of sunglasses on. No,
you know, it's just like it's like ripping off a
band aid. You go in there and you buy and
you buy some condoms if you need to write, and
you know, you can always do that method. You'll see
on talk shows and movies where you've got like some
gum a magazine and it's like some condoms. Yeah, you know,
(19:38):
and I and I also recommend looking the drug store
clerk directly in the eye as they're bringing out the condoms,
because they're expecting you to be weird and nervous, and
then you can just actually make them uncomfortable if you
just look them straight in the eye. And I think
that's always I'm about to go home and practice incredibly
safe sex, but I'm not going I'm only going to
use these one at a time because Molly, as we
(19:59):
learned in the r well how condoms work. Double bagging
is not a good idea. It can actually lead to
additional ripping and tearing. Right, you're gonna use them one
at a time, and you're gonna use them only once,
So that maybe why you're buying a box of fifty Like,
just go ahead and look him in the eye and
be like, be like sending him a subliminal message of yes,
I know how cons work, I know why I'm using
(20:19):
them to prevent STDs and pregnancy. So what you gotta
say about a Mr. Convenience storeman, Yeah, I'm just buying
some capodis, which is my favorite nickname for condoms, some
French letters, some Jimmy hats, some Jimmy had, some raincoat.
We went through a lot of old slang words for
condoms and get ringing for this podcast. Okay, so you've
(20:40):
gotten over buying the condoms. Oh one more tip if
you if you really just freaked out about it, use
cash because some people get weirded out that like a
debit carter credit card, people will always know who bought what.
And I don't think it matters, but that's just another
way if you're nervous about it, to get over. It
can never be traced back to you. All Right, you're
home from the drug store. You're in the heat of
(21:00):
heat of the moment. It's time for the condom. Take
us through that chaosly that moment, Christen, oh man, I
thought you were going to do this. Molly now something
you might be thinking right now, My god, why are
Molly and Kristen taking us back to condoms one oh
one with how to put on a condom? It's because
a lot of people, men and women, don't actually understand
(21:20):
how to properly use a condom. And as we'll talk
about in just a minute, Um that can make a
huge difference in whether or not a lady's gonna get
preggers from having condom sex. Okay, so the first thing
you want to do is make sure the sucker is
right side up, all right. The tips should stick up
from the center of the condom, and if it's upside down,
(21:42):
it won't unroll correctly. And then if it doesn't unroll correctly,
then someone's gonna get panicking, and then the whole thing
is just fault pieces. And you know, people do get
kind of panicky about putting on a condom, and it's
important just to do it, you know, early on in
the process. If it freaks you out, then just buy
box of condoms and practice, you know, just be ready
for before you were with your special lady or if
(22:03):
you're a woman, you know, before you get with the guy,
know like what you should be looking for in terms
of how he puts it on. And then you're gonna
want to squeeze the end of the condom so there's
no air in the little little reservoir at the end
at the tip of it, and then place it on
the tip of the erect penis. Now, speaking of erect penises,
remember people that we should do this before there is
(22:24):
any sexual contact, if you really want to prevent a
CD transmission. Yeah, not halfway through now. It's it's kind
of hard to do to describe like the unrolling process
without a visual, but you know, if you go to
our website how Stuff Works dot com, there's a a
graphic of it, which is kind of weird for our
site because we don't normally have graphics of things like that.
(22:46):
We're a family website. But you know, sometimes you want
to control your family planning, and that means every now
and then you've got to throw a penis graphic up there.
All right. So many condumns come with lubricant, but if
you need additional lubricant, it's important use one that is
water based because anything that is oil based will break
down the condom. And then once you're finished, hold the
(23:06):
rim of the condom to keep it from slipping off,
withdraw the penis, remove the condom to throw it in
the trash. Yeah, I remember, don't toss of the toilet.
I don't want to clog up those ulo this pot.
Don't want your landlord knowing what you've been up to. Row. So, yeah,
it is very important that as basic as it sounds,
you understand how to wear a condom properly. Because check
(23:30):
this out, a woman who is having sexual intercourse with
a man over the time period of a year has
a three percent chance of becoming pregnant if the couple
is using a condom correctly with every act of sexual intercourse. Now,
with typical use, because typically we don't use condoms correctly,
(23:53):
the risk of an unplanned pregnancy is twelve. We're into
double digit s molly now. But see, I don't think
we want to are people too much because I could
see some people being like, well, I f M, are
you gonna get pregnant with perfect use? So why use
a condom? And that's what I'm gonna throw out, this number,
which is using nothing at all, you have a chance
becoming pregnant having sex every year. So don't don't let
(24:13):
the three percent thing get in your head and psych
you out. It's important to use a condom every time
you have sex, and it you know, it's three percent
meant much better than a percent. And there's also something
that we should mention that you know, condoms can't protect
you against everything. For instance, some s t I S,
including genital warts, genital herpes, and pubic life are present
(24:36):
in and on infected person's skin or hair in areas
that aren't covered by condoms, and these kind of conditions
can be transmitted even with the perfect condom use. So again,
that's why it's important to not only practice save sex
in terms of using condoms, but also being tested, knowing
your partner and all of those glorious things. But not
(24:58):
to be not to be totally negative on this because
I'm not trying to come down on condoms, Molly, I
just you know, we need to know, we need to
arm ourselves with all of the facts. But on the upside,
according to the World Health Organization, condoms do protect against
thirty more than thirty actually different types of bacteria, viruses
and parasites and babies and babies um including things like
(25:24):
chlamydia and gonorrhea, hepatitis, the old syphilis that got us
interested in condoms in the first place. So condoms are
we cannot stress enough how valuable they are. Yet you
know we still you just gotta you gotta be smart,
you gotta play it safe. Now, Kristen, you are worried
about the std s and st guys that live on
the skin, perhaps you'd be more interested in a female condom. Yes,
(25:47):
the female condom, which was introduced to us in three actually,
as the name implies, is inserted into the vagina and
actually covers the the labia and protects that kind of skin,
not just um. You know, the blocks the cervix from
(26:09):
from sperm implantation. So now it's more um again. This
is something you can see in the article. You can
see a graphic of the two next to each other. Basically,
the female condom is a lot wider and so some
men say that it doesn't cut off sensation the way
that male condoms do. But they're not as in wide
US as male condoms because they're more expensive. Uh, they
(26:31):
don't have as good a rate as preventing pregnancy and
s t I s still safe for the unprotected sex,
and it's kind of hard for for newbies to get
the hang of putting it in correctly. So it's an option,
especially if you're worried about all those scary things Christian
told you about things living on your skin. But it
has become as widespread as they had originally hoped. So
(26:52):
whether you prefer to call them capodis or raincoats or
Jimmy hats, filthy slippers, French letters, by whatever name and
by whatever um you know, exact type female condoms, male condoms,
dental dans, etcetera. Molly and I would just like to
(27:12):
urge all of you out there to practice safe sex.
Very true. Yes, So if you have any questions or
comments about condoms and condom usage, you know where to
direct your inquiries Moms stuff at how stuff works dot com.
And let's uh end things off with some emails from
(27:35):
people who have writtenessed to that that address. First of off,
I go one from Amanda, who wrote about the men
and women friends issue. She writes while listening to your
podcasts on if men and women can be friends, one
of the sided comments was that a great type of
male friend was a black belt. I wanted to point out,
as a girl who will be getting her black belt
(27:56):
in just a few weeks, that I feel just as
capable of defending my friends, both perbectly and from perfectly. Sorry,
Amanda did not write that both verbally and physically. As
a male martial artist, can the stereotype of males being
more able to defend females than other females it's rather absurd.
Although I'm aware that males do tend to have more
upper body strength, I feel at this point it's not
stressed in society. All right, Well, I've got one here
(28:18):
on the same episode. This is from Leah and she said, well,
you did touch upon the gay issue. I feel that
something major was overlooked, namely on this issue is a
huge oversight to lump gay men and lesbians into the
same category. Lesbians are hit with a double whammy of
homophobia and sexism, and the same does not hold true
for gay men. As a gay woman, my potential relationships
with straight men have been compromised by sexual undertones in
(28:40):
a way that is never the case with gay men.
Uh you know the whole lesbians cool? Can I watch? Furthermore,
the gay male straight woman friendship media frenzy that you
discussed is strictly a gay male phenomenon and not something
most lesbians can relate to. If anything, the media portrays
lesbians in the lesbian slash straight male dynamic is stuck
up or even man hating. Don't get me wrong, I
(29:01):
totally appreciate this podcast. I just wanted to point out
that when it comes to this topic, the gender friendship
complications face by game and lesbians are not one and
the same, so thank you for putting that out, Leah.
And again, our email is mom Stuff at how stuff
works dot com. Head on over to Facebook and make
us your friends like us please we are at Stuff
(29:21):
I've never told you there, and then on Twitter we
are moms Stuff Podcast. Sorry for all the names you
have to keep up with, just the way the Internet
works sometimes. And then finally, if you would like to
see what Molly and I are up to during the week,
you can head over to our blog and it's at
how stuff works dot com for more on this and
(29:43):
thousands of other topics. Because at how stuff works dot com.
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You?
From housetop Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Kristen. We have decided
(00:21):
to title this podcast Condoms Condoms Condoms, perhaps the most
clever episode title and the Mom Stuff catalog. Clever or lazy, yes,
but you know that's what we're gonna talk about. It
really does sum up what what I think this episode
is gonna cover. Yeah, because we're gonna touch you. We're
gonna touch on a lot of different aspects of condoms
(00:41):
and uh we we didn't know how else to sum
it up except for gandoms, gandoms condoms. So let's start
off with the thing that kind of sparked my interest
in this podcast, particularly at this time of the year.
Is the World Cup is going on. Yes, the World
Cup happening in South Africa. And one thing that you
might have noticed if you've been following World Cup news
(01:04):
online at all, is that a lot of the coverage
either deals with who has beaten whom on the field
or condoms. I know those are the two main trends
emerging from this World Cup in South Africa, especially in
the lead up to the games, in which they were
talking about you know, how can we are public health
(01:24):
officials were like, how can we bring attention to the
to the AIDS epidemic that is raging in South Africa. Right,
I didn't realize that South Africa has the world's highest
incident of HIV and AIDS, with five point seven million
out of its nearly fifty million residents afflicted, which is
roughly twelve percent of the population, and in some regions
(01:47):
one in five adults is HIV positive. So kind of
the public health goal with the month long World Cup
is to distribute one billion condoms throughout South South Africa,
and different countries have donated condoms. For instance, the UK
has sent over forty two million condoms UM and even
(02:08):
the President Jacob Zuma has gotten involved with this by
a by getting tested for HIV earlier the spring and
publicly disclosing you know, his negative status to try to
UM you know, remove the stigma from getting from getting tested.
Because not only do they need to distribute more condoms,
they need to have more people getting tested UM and
(02:30):
more people treated so with the eyes of the world
on South Africa for this month, that was sort of
the impetus for, you know, making this big condom push.
They're trying to get a lot of soccer stars involved
with pushing for testing, pushing for using a condom. Some
people are criticizing the effort a little bit though, because
of the immense number of prostitutes that are descending on
(02:51):
South Africa. Uh, in case the soccer games are enough
entertainment for you, I guess you could use prostitute. But
you know, then people are saying, is this just going
to encourage prostitution? Uh? Is it only helping the tourists
and not helping the South Africans Because what they were
hopings that when South Africa had all this you know,
attention on them, they would be the ones to be
(03:12):
learning more about safe sex. Right because South Africa's Central
Drug Authority estimated that about forty thousand prostitutes were expected
to arrive. And these aren't even prostitutes who were already
in South Africa. These are actually prostitues coming in specifically
for the World Cut Molly, like you mentioned and um
and we we found a blog post on the f
(03:34):
word by Amy Claire, and she made a good point
that while you know, it's it's a good thing that
the South American South African, I should say, government is
trying to distribute one billion condoms and we have the
male soccer players out here, you know, preaching the gospel
of safe sex, but at the same time it's ignoring
(03:54):
the fact that women in South Africa are actually far
more likely to contract HIV UM not just because it's
easier for a woman to contract it, but also because
of the higher incidents of um, you know, force for
sex and if we're talking about prostitution and sex trafficking
going on as well, there's you know that it's a
(04:15):
it's a more complex social issue than just getting men
to to wrap it up right. And since rape is
such a big problem in South Africa, there has been
one interesting condom story coming out with all this World
Cup stuff, and that is the distribution or the potential
distribution of the rape Ax condom. This is a condom
that was developed by Dr Sennett Eller's in two thousand
(04:36):
seven and she's been kind of fine tuning it and
she wanted to distribute thirty thousand of them. Essentially, a
woman puts uh this condom, it's it's kind of shaped
like a tampon into her vagina and then if she's raped,
these um like claws clenched onto the man's penis and
stops the rape in progress. Although this has been again
(04:56):
obviously you might imagine somewhat criticized because that just teaching
women to expect to be raped. Is this really the
most effective form of you know, stopping rape. And if
a woman is being attached by multiple men, won't this
just cause more violence for her in the long run.
It's very controversial, but you know, it's a problem. The
rape is a problem in South Africa. So, like we said,
(05:18):
there's just a whole host of condom stories from the
mild manner, by which I would count the uh, the
story that after South Korea one, uh, they just condoms
sales skyrocketed. And the stories have really ranged from these,
you know, very violent stories about rape acts condoms to
the even more mild mannered stories such as the one
(05:38):
that came out about skyrocketing condom sales when South Korea
beat Greece. Yeah, apparently fans bought five times more condoms uh,
when South Korea beat the euro two thousand four champions
Greece than during their lack luster two thousand six World
(06:00):
Up performance. Well, they also bought a lot of fried chicken,
according to the paper. So you know, condoms and fried chicken.
I mean, that's that's a way to celebrate, a way
to celebrate, and I can't dison that. But but going
back though too, Really the crux of the whole South
Africa World Cup condom story, if you will, it all
relates back to AIDS in tackling this issue of controlling
(06:23):
HIV and controlling AIDS and bringing those numbers down. And
if you look at the history of condom use um,
condoms really became i guess, far more widely used and
more popular in the eighties when the threat of AIDS
really came to the forefront. But if we go far
(06:44):
back in time a few centuries, it was another std
that actually brought condoms to UH into more prominent use,
and that was syphilis. Yeah, syphilis came from the New
World in the Western Hemisphere to Europe and Asia during
(07:07):
the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Now, at the time,
syphilis had no cure and it was causing problems like dementia,
sores and death. So obviously people are like, we've gotta
gotta get control on the cyphlis problem. And they finally
figured out that it was the sex that was causing it,
and that's when the condom first became a tool for
disease prevention. UH. In fifty six, Gabriel A. Fallopio, the
(07:30):
same fellow who discovered the fallopian tubes, penned the oldest
known written description of the condom to recommend it as
a siphilis preventive that we have other other fellows at
the time saying that it's just a sign of immorality.
It's basically the same argument that's going on today if
you give out a condom doesn't encourage promiscuity or as
a protective and that debate was going on as earliest
(07:51):
fifty six, right, But the actual existence of you know,
condom like prophylactics goes back way beyond full O Pio uh.
And in fact, the oldest known image of a sheathed
penis is found in cave painting Steadiu as far back
is fifteen thousand BC. So even even the cave folk work,
(08:14):
we're practicing safe sex. Well, now that's the thing is
they're not sure they were sheathing their penis specifically for
some sort of sexual protection, whether it was just ornamental,
if it was some form of costume. They do have
all these pictures dating back, as he said to, you know,
just centuries and centuries ago, but they're not sure exactly
when people figured out exactly what the condom could do
(08:37):
in terms of protecting against UH, pregnancy and other diseases, right,
because it hasn't been that long in medical history that
we've really understood how we go from intercourse to having
a baby, small baby. It's not a stork. What it's
not a story. It's not a stork, Molly. You heard
it here and now on the podcast. But I do
(08:58):
like this little tidbit. And ancient Japan some men used thin,
rigid sheaves called kabuto gata, which were made from horns
during intercourse, and that just sounds painful. I don't really
I can't really work out of my head how exactly
that worked, but I'm sure it's on the internet somewhere. Yeah,
maybe we should google probably not safe for work image. Yeah, um,
(09:22):
but you know, they do know despite the fact not
knowing exactly when people figured out that you know they
were protecting against sperm ing an egg. We do know
that condoms were wide spread in Europe by the time
of let's say Shakespeare. Yes, the first documented condoms were
actually handstone pieces of linen that fit over either the
entire penis, over the tip, or into the urethra, and
(09:43):
they would be held together with a with a little
draw string like ribbon. That's my favorite fun fact about
ancient condoms. Draw strings. Yeah, if they would tie their
condoms up with ribbons and uh. And then by the
mid seventeen hundreds, people started using condoms made from animal
membranes that were again still tied with men. Uh, still
tied with ribbons and condom makers oftentimes we're also glove makers,
(10:08):
which explains why you know they were able to make
such fine fitting condoms. I wonder if they were the
first ones who came up with no glove, no love.
Probably not. Just thought I'd throw that off, But you
know what, it was kind of an intense process we're
reading about, and we should mention that. Right now, we're
using an article it's on our website, how Stuff Works
(10:29):
dot com, written by Tracy V. Wilson, and uh, we're
sort of just going through it because it's got so
many condom fun facts like in this one that making
uh you know, they were using animal guts. Making guts
into condoms required cleaning, scraping, exposure to burning sulfur, inflating, drying, molding, cutting,
and sewing. Yea. Quite it was quite an expensive product
(10:52):
to make, which is why. And it was also you know,
not the best product because they're still fine tuning their
technique and uh and they were often full of holes,
right and uh, people reuse them, which you know, it's
sort of a big no no in in the condom world. Yeah.
But then once we have the discovery of the vulcanization
of rubber in eighteen thirty nine and we have the
(11:17):
arrival of rubber on the scene. Uh, men started getting
these custom fit condoms, reusable rubber condoms from their doctor,
which were considerably thicker and rougher than condoms used today.
And some of them would actually just cover the tip
of the penisum. But they were often like you said,
(11:38):
with those uh, those old kind of the glovemakers condoms,
no glove, no love um. They were reusable and wash
and war but because of the use of oil based lubricants,
it often broke down the rubber because, as you can imagine,
they needed assistance with the actual intercourse mechanics, you know,
(11:59):
considering the of the roughness and thickness of these rubber condoms.
So that was eight thirty nine. Let's skip ahead to
nineteen nineteen when we've got old Frederick Killian to thank
for using uh latex instead of rubber. Frederick Killian, the
father of the latex condom. I would love it if
(12:21):
that was on my gravest stone. I mean, my name's
not Frederick Killian. Everything that that part Molly Advincive, father
of the latex condom, I'll remember that. I mean, I'm
just throwing it off there. Seems like I could be
fun So yeah, we have. We've got the thinner, cheaper
latex condoms that also have a longer shelf life and
fun fact, the expiration period today for latex condoms, Molly,
(12:45):
do you know, uh ten years, five years throw away
all those old Denier condoms you got, Molly. Um. But
even today, we still have developments in the condom material goals,
which include polymers like Polli Supreme and Polly You're a thing,
But doctors still recommend you going the old latex route
(13:08):
unless you have some kind of latex allergy. And of
course you can also always use the quote unquote cheap
skin condoms that are actually made from intestinal linings, not
not sheep's, not actual sheep skin. But you know, by
and large, it seems that in the world we're using
latex condoms. They make up more than of condom sales worldwide. Now,
(13:30):
the average condom I was interested in this. I was
kind of curious about this, Molly. The average condom is
six point two nine inches long and two inches wide.
And what I did not know, Molly, is that many
nations actually set standards that govern those exact dimensions and materials.
(13:52):
Governments take condoms very seriously. And I also didn't realize
that and not and it makes sense once I read it.
Many nations actually classify condoms as drugs because of their
role in preventing diseases. So that's the reason why you'll
see condom ads and packaging um carrying specific language or
warnings in the same way that you know what, like
(14:13):
Adville or Thailand all might. But you know what, Crystal,
let's take a step back. Let's look at condoms before
they get into the store before they've got all that
packaging and specific language. I want to go back to
when you've just got some rubber from a tree, some
some un you know, just a bat of latex. You'll
do with it. You want to find out where condoms
(14:34):
come from? My idea. You're blown my mind with where
babies come from, so I might as well cover where
the condoms do well. Get ready, Molly, it's a stork
the condom store. The condom store brings the condom. No,
it doesn't. They're made in factories. Is all of our
smart listeners? No, So, just like in the early days,
we've got latex that comes from tapping rubber trees in Brazil,
(14:54):
Southeast Asia or West Africa. Now it's mixed up with
some other things like anti fungal and antibacterial compounds, zinc
oxide which will accelerate the vulcanization process, UH stabilizers, anticoagulants, preservatives,
maybe some pigments. If if you're just going crazy with things,
but when you add all these things, that's what makes
(15:14):
it uh not natural. You know, if you're using like
an intestine, then you know it breaks down, but you're
adding all those essentially preservatives, it makes the shelf life
of the condom longer. But it also means that you
shouldn't flush it down the toilet because it cannot break
down on its own right. These are not condoms are
not biodegradable, So like your tampons, keep your condoms out
(15:36):
of the toilet. Uh. And some people have said, you know,
we need to figure out how to make sex greener.
We need to figure out how to make you know,
safe sex not something that hurts the environment. But that's
it's a topic for another day and time. But to
continue on the condoms journey from batom latex to the
to the store. Uh, They've got these things called formers,
and they're all suspended from a conveyor belt and essentially
(15:58):
it's like a glass or ceramic old that comes down,
is dipped into the vat of latex that kind of
turns around so it gets coated evenly and it comes
back up. And I kind of compare this in my head,
Cristin to like when you go to Dairy Queen and
you're getting a dipped coney, You know how you just
kind of have to dip it real fast into the
chocolate and come back out so it'll dry all evenly.
That's sort of how I picture this part of the
(16:20):
process going in in a factory. It's like a bunch
of ice cream cone is just dipping down getting the covering,
and they do a few a few dips so that
they've got enough enough thickness right there, and then they'll
put them in an oven and dry them. Yeah. And
so once we have basically the you know, the condom prototype,
(16:42):
they will have lublicants applied to them. It's usually the
last step before the condoms go into their foil wrappers,
and they're actually sandwich between the two layers of laminated
foil so as to keep out air and ultraviolet light
or else the condoms will deteriorate. And because you know,
even though they're not naturally biodegradable, they will degrade after
(17:04):
a period of time. And that's why condoms have expiration
dates that you should pay attention to unless five years. Yes,
so five years unless you want breaking, slipping, leaking, or
more terrible things happening. Um. And you also, even though
you want to be careful when you're opening up a
condom package, shoe and the heat of passion will just
just tear it open with your teeth or your hands.
You might rip the condom, you know, and take It's
(17:26):
all right, things, just take your time open that coon delicate.
But one thing that men, especially you need to stop
doing is carrying your condoms around in your wallet. Yeah.
It'll lead to degrade. Yeah, because their heat sensitive and
so you know, if it's hanging out in your wallet,
your wallets, in your back pocket, there's extra heat there.
(17:48):
It's just it's not you know, keep them, keep them
tucked away in a drawer in a in a cool,
dark place for maximum quality assurance. But speaking of quality assurance,
only one thing we haven't said is quality testing. Because
I don't know about you, but I've heard those horror
stories about condoms. You know, you put them under a
microscope and they're just full of holes, and you know
(18:09):
this is it's just a condoms sort of hoax. Um.
But they actually go through some pretty rigorous testing. Yeah,
I think it'd be pretty fun to be a condom
tester if I can't be the father of the latex
condom like Frederick Killian. They do a lot of uh
strength testing to to test how far it can stretch,
how far it can inflate. They fill them with water
(18:31):
to see if any any it springs any leaks. Yeah,
and unfortunately I don't have water bloom fights after that,
but instead they will visually inspect for leaks as well
as rub them on absorbent paper so that if it's
just such a miniscule link, but when they see that
drop of water on the paper, they'll know this batch
is a no go. So now that we've gotten we've
got the condoms in the packages. You know, we've gone
(18:53):
to the drug store. We picked up the pack of
insert brand name here condom. Well, no, wait, let me
stop you there, Kristen, because I do know that a
lot of people get really nervous about going to the
drug store to get the condoms. Do you think between
the two of us we have any tips on how
to make that a less stressful experience. Well, first of all,
you want to drive about ten miles out of town
(19:17):
and uh, I have a large pair of sunglasses on. No,
you know, it's just like it's like ripping off a
band aid. You go in there and you buy and
you buy some condoms if you need to write, and
you know, you can always do that method. You'll see
on talk shows and movies where you've got like some
gum a magazine and it's like some condoms. Yeah, you know,
(19:38):
and I and I also recommend looking the drug store
clerk directly in the eye as they're bringing out the condoms,
because they're expecting you to be weird and nervous, and
then you can just actually make them uncomfortable if you
just look them straight in the eye. And I think
that's always I'm about to go home and practice incredibly
safe sex, but I'm not going I'm only going to
use these one at a time because Molly, as we
(19:59):
learned in the r well how condoms work. Double bagging
is not a good idea. It can actually lead to
additional ripping and tearing. Right, you're gonna use them one
at a time, and you're gonna use them only once,
So that maybe why you're buying a box of fifty Like,
just go ahead and look him in the eye and
be like, be like sending him a subliminal message of yes,
I know how cons work, I know why I'm using
(20:19):
them to prevent STDs and pregnancy. So what you gotta
say about a Mr. Convenience storeman, Yeah, I'm just buying
some capodis, which is my favorite nickname for condoms, some
French letters, some Jimmy hats, some Jimmy had, some raincoat.
We went through a lot of old slang words for
condoms and get ringing for this podcast. Okay, so you've
(20:40):
gotten over buying the condoms. Oh one more tip if
you if you really just freaked out about it, use
cash because some people get weirded out that like a
debit carter credit card, people will always know who bought what.
And I don't think it matters, but that's just another
way if you're nervous about it, to get over. It
can never be traced back to you. All Right, you're
home from the drug store. You're in the heat of
(21:00):
heat of the moment. It's time for the condom. Take
us through that chaosly that moment, Christen, oh man, I
thought you were going to do this. Molly now something
you might be thinking right now, My god, why are
Molly and Kristen taking us back to condoms one oh
one with how to put on a condom? It's because
a lot of people, men and women, don't actually understand
(21:20):
how to properly use a condom. And as we'll talk
about in just a minute, Um that can make a
huge difference in whether or not a lady's gonna get
preggers from having condom sex. Okay, so the first thing
you want to do is make sure the sucker is
right side up, all right. The tips should stick up
from the center of the condom, and if it's upside down,
(21:42):
it won't unroll correctly. And then if it doesn't unroll correctly,
then someone's gonna get panicking, and then the whole thing
is just fault pieces. And you know, people do get
kind of panicky about putting on a condom, and it's
important just to do it, you know, early on in
the process. If it freaks you out, then just buy
box of condoms and practice, you know, just be ready
for before you were with your special lady or if
(22:03):
you're a woman, you know, before you get with the guy,
know like what you should be looking for in terms
of how he puts it on. And then you're gonna
want to squeeze the end of the condom so there's
no air in the little little reservoir at the end
at the tip of it, and then place it on
the tip of the erect penis. Now, speaking of erect penises,
remember people that we should do this before there is
(22:24):
any sexual contact, if you really want to prevent a
CD transmission. Yeah, not halfway through now. It's it's kind
of hard to do to describe like the unrolling process
without a visual, but you know, if you go to
our website how Stuff Works dot com, there's a a
graphic of it, which is kind of weird for our
site because we don't normally have graphics of things like that.
(22:46):
We're a family website. But you know, sometimes you want
to control your family planning, and that means every now
and then you've got to throw a penis graphic up there.
All right. So many condumns come with lubricant, but if
you need additional lubricant, it's important use one that is
water based because anything that is oil based will break
down the condom. And then once you're finished, hold the
(23:06):
rim of the condom to keep it from slipping off,
withdraw the penis, remove the condom to throw it in
the trash. Yeah, I remember, don't toss of the toilet.
I don't want to clog up those ulo this pot.
Don't want your landlord knowing what you've been up to. Row. So, yeah,
it is very important that as basic as it sounds,
you understand how to wear a condom properly. Because check
(23:30):
this out, a woman who is having sexual intercourse with
a man over the time period of a year has
a three percent chance of becoming pregnant if the couple
is using a condom correctly with every act of sexual intercourse. Now,
with typical use, because typically we don't use condoms correctly,
(23:53):
the risk of an unplanned pregnancy is twelve. We're into
double digit s molly now. But see, I don't think
we want to are people too much because I could
see some people being like, well, I f M, are
you gonna get pregnant with perfect use? So why use
a condom? And that's what I'm gonna throw out, this number,
which is using nothing at all, you have a chance
becoming pregnant having sex every year. So don't don't let
(24:13):
the three percent thing get in your head and psych
you out. It's important to use a condom every time
you have sex, and it you know, it's three percent
meant much better than a percent. And there's also something
that we should mention that you know, condoms can't protect
you against everything. For instance, some s t I S,
including genital warts, genital herpes, and pubic life are present
(24:36):
in and on infected person's skin or hair in areas
that aren't covered by condoms, and these kind of conditions
can be transmitted even with the perfect condom use. So again,
that's why it's important to not only practice save sex
in terms of using condoms, but also being tested, knowing
your partner and all of those glorious things. But not
(24:58):
to be not to be totally negative on this because
I'm not trying to come down on condoms, Molly, I
just you know, we need to know, we need to
arm ourselves with all of the facts. But on the upside,
according to the World Health Organization, condoms do protect against
thirty more than thirty actually different types of bacteria, viruses
and parasites and babies and babies um including things like
(25:24):
chlamydia and gonorrhea, hepatitis, the old syphilis that got us
interested in condoms in the first place. So condoms are
we cannot stress enough how valuable they are. Yet you
know we still you just gotta you gotta be smart,
you gotta play it safe. Now, Kristen, you are worried
about the std s and st guys that live on
the skin, perhaps you'd be more interested in a female condom. Yes,
(25:47):
the female condom, which was introduced to us in three actually,
as the name implies, is inserted into the vagina and
actually covers the the labia and protects that kind of skin,
not just um. You know, the blocks the cervix from
(26:09):
from sperm implantation. So now it's more um again. This
is something you can see in the article. You can
see a graphic of the two next to each other. Basically,
the female condom is a lot wider and so some
men say that it doesn't cut off sensation the way
that male condoms do. But they're not as in wide
US as male condoms because they're more expensive. Uh, they
(26:31):
don't have as good a rate as preventing pregnancy and
s t I s still safe for the unprotected sex,
and it's kind of hard for for newbies to get
the hang of putting it in correctly. So it's an option,
especially if you're worried about all those scary things Christian
told you about things living on your skin. But it
has become as widespread as they had originally hoped. So
(26:52):
whether you prefer to call them capodis or raincoats or
Jimmy hats, filthy slippers, French letters, by whatever name and
by whatever um you know, exact type female condoms, male condoms,
dental dans, etcetera. Molly and I would just like to
(27:12):
urge all of you out there to practice safe sex.
Very true. Yes, So if you have any questions or
comments about condoms and condom usage, you know where to
direct your inquiries Moms stuff at how stuff works dot com.
And let's uh end things off with some emails from
(27:35):
people who have writtenessed to that that address. First of off,
I go one from Amanda, who wrote about the men
and women friends issue. She writes while listening to your
podcasts on if men and women can be friends, one
of the sided comments was that a great type of
male friend was a black belt. I wanted to point out,
as a girl who will be getting her black belt
(27:56):
in just a few weeks, that I feel just as
capable of defending my friends, both perbectly and from perfectly. Sorry,
Amanda did not write that both verbally and physically. As
a male martial artist, can the stereotype of males being
more able to defend females than other females it's rather absurd.
Although I'm aware that males do tend to have more
upper body strength, I feel at this point it's not
stressed in society. All right, Well, I've got one here
(28:18):
on the same episode. This is from Leah and she said, well,
you did touch upon the gay issue. I feel that
something major was overlooked, namely on this issue is a
huge oversight to lump gay men and lesbians into the
same category. Lesbians are hit with a double whammy of
homophobia and sexism, and the same does not hold true
for gay men. As a gay woman, my potential relationships
with straight men have been compromised by sexual undertones in
(28:40):
a way that is never the case with gay men.
Uh you know the whole lesbians cool? Can I watch? Furthermore,
the gay male straight woman friendship media frenzy that you
discussed is strictly a gay male phenomenon and not something
most lesbians can relate to. If anything, the media portrays
lesbians in the lesbian slash straight male dynamic is stuck
up or even man hating. Don't get me wrong, I
(29:01):
totally appreciate this podcast. I just wanted to point out
that when it comes to this topic, the gender friendship
complications face by game and lesbians are not one and
the same, so thank you for putting that out, Leah.
And again, our email is mom Stuff at how stuff
works dot com. Head on over to Facebook and make
us your friends like us please we are at Stuff
(29:21):
I've never told you there, and then on Twitter we
are moms Stuff Podcast. Sorry for all the names you
have to keep up with, just the way the Internet
works sometimes. And then finally, if you would like to
see what Molly and I are up to during the week,
you can head over to our blog and it's at
how stuff works dot com for more on this and
(29:43):
thousands of other topics. Because at how stuff works dot com.
Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
the house stuff works dot com home page. Brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's Reddy,
are you
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