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Sies, Sowetan for failing to address safe sex angle

The Sowetan’s borderline-pornographic coverage of police officers bonking (in their words) certainly has, as the editor predicted, got the nation talking.

But forget drawing any real attention to police negligence or failures of the system, the gratuitous material got tongues wagging about one thing more than any other - sex.

And this is not necessarily a bad thing. In the context of our HIV epidemic, it is about time we have a public and open debate about sex and particularly about risky sex.

But this is not it.

The overly moralistic tone of the headlines together with the titillating pictures and excessively detailed description of the rendezvous appear to have set in motion an avalanche of judgemental responses.

Based on reader’s comments, branding this behaviour as disgusting (“sies”) and unbelievable (“hayikhona!”), only served to cement ignorance and prejudice towards sex.

According to one Sowetan reader: “You just don’t have sex in the workplace and public places.” This is patently untrue.

Risky and hurried sex is everywhere. So is extramarital sex and multiple and concurrent partnerships. If this were completely unusual behaviour, we would not be facing a situation in which nearly one in five adults are living with HIV.

The irony is that not only did the officers abscond from their duty as protectors of South African citizens, they also failed to protect themselves and those closest to them from a life-threatening danger.

The Sowetan’s publication of the racy pictures has been called many things this week, but above all it was a botched opportunity to have a truly meaningful conversation about the risks of unprotected and impulsive sex.

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