It’s a Saturday afternoon. I am sitting at a table outside of Usdan, Wesleyan’s student center, under a big black umbrella. The sun toasts my exposed shoulders. A student journalist with the school paper asks me questions about my recent, surreal herpes stardom, and strangers at nearby tables peer over at me as I answer because […]
Read More
Picture this: you’re twenty years old, you’ve just been diagnosed with genital herpes, and you have no idea how long you’ve had it or who might have given it to you. You know you have to do the responsible thing and call everyone you have recently slept with—except eight months ago you had the most epic breakup of your life.
Read More1. As soon as you hit publish, you start crying. You can’t explain why—it’s a strange moment of bodily supremacy where your brain has been thinking about this decision for months but your lungs decide this is a big deal and you are no longer in control. You can’t explain this feeling when you have […]
Read More
I, as a real life person, have herpes. According to stigma, no sex I ever have will be safe.
Read MoreWe need to talk about herpes jokes. In particular, we need to talk about herpes jokes and Wesleyan, my dear flawed alma mater. As my younger friends moved into their new dorms in Middletown this weekend, I searched tumblr for posts about STIs. I’m involved in tumblr’s sprawling sexual health support community and track the tags for […]
Read MoreI have long been a fan of Mindy Kaling’s flawed but whip smart sitcom The Mindy Project, which for the uninformed tells the story of Doctor Mindy Lahiri and her consistently ridiculous love life. The show’s second season finale aired last week and wrapped up (for now) the on again/off again romance of Mindy and […]
Read More
Ella Dawson 