To The Teenage Girls Who Have Herpes
This world will tell you that you are worthless: because you are a girl, because you are sexually active, because you have a virus, because you have a voice. Don’t listen to it.
Read More
Dear Internet Commenters Who Really Don’t Want Herpes,
Your Facebook comments have made me think. I’m not being facetious—whenever I read a comment from someone (usually a man) upset that rejecting someone who has an STI makes you a bad person, I wonder why you are so alarmed and defensive. When have I ever said that turning down someone herpes+ makes you a […]
Read MoreHow I Lost My Post-Herpes Virginity
He must have been nervous, too. When the night finally arrived, he pulled a Ziplock bag out of his backpack full of condoms from the student health center.
Read MoreWhy “Peeple” Is Dangerous To Survivors… and, Really, Anyone
UPDATE 3/7/2016: Peeple has launched, with a new paid “truth license” that allows you to read hidden reviews to come soon. You can read my latest take here. I work in social media. It is part of my job to stay up-to-date on the myriad new social networks that spring up like weeds every day. Some […]
Read MoreWhy I Cut My Hair
I’ve been offline. Or as offline as someone who works in social media can be. Somewhere around my site hitting 14k hits in a single day, somewhere around seeing my face appear over and over again on my Twitter feed, somewhere around co-worker #8 coming up to me in the kitchen and saying, “I SAW YOU ON […]
Read MoreA Lesson In Herpes Stigma, Via Facebook Comments
The classic mantra of reading, writing and merely existing on the Internet is “Don’t read the comments.” Internet comments, and Facebook comments in particular, are widely discredited as a cesspool of nastiness and trolling. If the writer or subject of a given article is anyone other than a straight, white man, the comments are even worse. […]
Read MoreSome Thoughts on Going Viral (Again)
As I write this, an article about me is the number two trending story on BuzzFeed. My friends have been texting me all day to say that their friends have been texting them about me popping up on their newsfeed. The daily traffic to this blog has spiked into the thousands. Two different TV producers […]
Read MoreThe Herpes+ Writer Directory
Here’s a list of herpes+ writers you need to be reading, AND, if you’re a journalist or an editor, contacting about writing for your publications.
Read MoreWho Would I Be If I Hadn’t Gotten Herpes?
The lovely ladies over at Femsplain let me write about my fixation with parallel universes for their August theme “jealousy.” I’m not an especially jealous person beyond the usual who is that girl in that picture with my man moments on Facebook. But I do wonder about the Ella who never got herpes, and whether or not her […]
Read MoreHow I Use Trigger Warnings
So The Atlantic published another (another?!) article about trigger warnings this week, meaning my Facebook and Twitter feeds were full of outraged baby boomers yet again. Trigger warnings have become emblematic of the over-sensitivity and out of control political correctness of my generation, if you believe the media and its breathless coverage of the “trend” […]
Read More
