Condom Confidence Campaign Draws Criticism

We hear this all the time from women.  They don't carry condoms because, and I quote, "what if someone saw the condom in my clutch?  They'll think I'm a slut."

Ministers have been accused of promoting promiscuity after launching a new campaign to encourage young women to carry condoms. The £5.2 million publicity drive tells women in their late teens and early 20s that men are attracted to girls who carry the contraceptives. It advises that "men like nothing better than a woman who knows what she wants".

The Department of Health labelled the campaign: "Condom confidence boosts sex appeal". The initiative, launched by Health Minister Dawn Primarolo, also gives young women advice on how to persuade men to use condoms. Recommended phrases include "If you make it clean, I'll make it dirty" and "Let's get you ready for the ride of your life". Women are told that they are no longer regarded as "easy" for carrying a condom.

Cosmopolitan magazine writer Sarah Hedley, brought in to speak for the campaign, is quoted as saying: "Taking a condom on a night out should be as normal as taking a phone, keys and purse.

"There has never been a better time for women to be condom confident and enjoy a healthy, active sex life.'

But Conservative MP Julian Brazier said: "I have always accepted that condoms have some role to play in fighting sexually-transmitted infections.

"But it is very sad that the authors of this document do not seem to understand that the problem starts with growing levels of sexual activity by people with multiple partners.

"This campaign is contributing to the further growth of the problem rather than to public health."

Patricia Morgan, author of studies of teenage pregnancy, said: "You could hardly do more to encourage promiscuity. It is close to asking girls to go about the place with notices on their foreheads saying they are available."

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