As if her Psychotic B**** tribute song aimed at Chrissy Lampkin wasn’t enough to embarrass her son, Jim Jones’ mother is now coming out with a line of condoms. (Pause for reaction.)

Mama Jones stopped by Power 107.5 in Columbus to discuss her beef with her son’s girlfriend and then she dropped the condom bomb. Falling under the same title as her company, the name of the condom line will be Psychotic.The slogan? “Mama says don’t leave home without it!”

I don’t know anyone who wants to think about their mother when they’re about to get it on, but this Mama Jones condom line actually makes sense to me. She clearly is the poster child for why you shouldn’t have a baby unless you are fit to be a parent.

Listen to the whole interview on Power 107.5.  I don’t think i have to ask whether you’ll be buying Psychotic condoms. How do you think Jimmy will react to this “venture?”

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The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is on a mission to force the Adult Videos industry to make  actors wear condoms with a new bill it wants residents to vote on in Los Angeles.

Because LA is the Adult Videos industry hub, AHF has been gathering signatures from residents to get legislation on a voting ballot that would “formally condition the issuance of adult film permits by the City of Los Angeles to condom use in adult films shot and produced in Los Angeles, including collection of a fee from adult film permit recipients to allow for periodic inspections of sets in order to monitor for compliance,” according to a statement. So far 64,000 signatures have been gathered, ahead of the organization’s Dec. 23 deadline.

Mark McGrath, a health consultant working with AHF, said 3,400 cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea infections have been documented in the Adult Videos industry between 2004 and 2008 by the L.A. County Department of Health, and in August an unnamed Adult Videos star tested positive for HIV. Still, the industry has responded with a warning that business could move out of LA or go underground if stars have to wear condoms. It also mantains that the public would not support prophylactic-only Adult Videos.

What’s your take on this? Should Adult Videos stars be forced to wear condoms for their own sexual safety? Do you prefer condom-less Adult Videos flicks?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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By Charlotte Young

New research is casting a discouraging outlook for health experts in HIV prevention and family planning. NPR reports that a recent study reveals that the most popular form of contraception in Southern Africa has failed substantially. In fact, it’s creating a more devastating reality for those who use it. In response, the World Health Organization is calling together experts in efforts to find determine the validity of the study.

The contraception, used by 12 million African women in Southern Africa, is an injection which supposedly lasts up to three months. But the new study observes that not only has it fallen short in its effectiveness, women who use this form of birth control are twice as likely to become HIV positive and pass the virus onto their male partners, in comparison to women not using this particular contraception.

The study is published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. While previous studies have implicated similar contraceptives in HIV/AIDS infection risk increase for twenty years, results were mixed, flawed or too small to be considered accurate. The new study combines research from almost 4,000 couples in seven African countries.

“When I see a two times higher risk, that’s a high risk. It’s a doubling of the chances that a woman would acquire HIV, or, in the case of an infected woman, that she would pass the virus to her partner,” Dr. Jared Baeten, author of the study told NPR.

But despite his findings, WHO representatives and other health experts refuse to believe that the study’s results are conclusive. Dr. Charles Morrison of the public health management nonprofit FHI 360 says that recent media coverage in Africa has gone too far. He’s worried that the publicized results of this study will over-dramatize situation.

“The opposite side of the coin would also be tragic: to have a rollback in the numbers of women using effective contraception to avoid unintended pregnancy and to avoid all those other bad outcomes that can come with an unintended pregnancy in Africa,” Morrison said.

WHO representative Mary Lyn Gaffield discloses that the agency plans to look closely at the study as well as the entire body of evidence to avoid a risk in harming women’s sexual and reproductive health either way. The group will hold a conference on the issue in January to further study the new research as well as past results.

In order to create a more concrete foundation for the study’s findings, researchers may need to implement a larger-scale study on the subject. The study would carry a $30 million price tag and involve 5,000 women participants drawn at random. Results would not be conclusive for five years. In the meantime, experts suggest that the millions of African women using the injectable contraceptives should stick to condoms.

Research shows that an increasing amount of the population harbors some form of herpes (cold sore, vaginal, penile, and shingles), and in women, HVP, the human papillomavirus, can sit in wait but rear its ugly, warted, head in the form of cervical cancer later. And HIV is the highest growing disease affecting black women, so it goes without saying that young women should always, always, ALWAYS use protection when they choose to have sex before marriage.  That’s a big “DUH,” so forget what will.i.am said about condoms being tacky. Preventing yourself from contracting a sexually transmitted disease is worth losing the respect of this misogynist, and anyone else who says it’s un-ladylike to own and use some condoms with a dash of spermicide, just for good measure.

But once you’re married, all the condoms and spermicide should go to the wayside, right? I mean, if you’re monogamous, what’s the worry of getting a disease?  Not so fast, muchacha. Just because you’re being faithful and true doesn’t always mean your partner is. I have one unfortunate friend who found out her husband cheated on her not once, BUT TWICE, because she caught a case of Trichomonas–twice. Lucky for her, ‘trich’ is easy to cure, but if I were her, I’d never let that fool touch me with his man parts ever again.

Yesterday was National HIV Testing Day, but it’s never too late to do the right thing, especially when it comes to your sexual health. So if you haven’t been tested in a minute go out there and know your status.

If you know your status and you’re good, keep up the good work! (Like, seriously.)

In the meantime safe sex doesn’t have to be boring sex. If you use condoms to protect yourself from STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and unwanted pregnancies here are some options to add a little fun to your health.

Your Tango put together a list of condoms that are sure to please…in a humorous, entertaining way…the rest is for you to figure out.

The list of fun condoms includes glow in the dark ones and others featuring classic works of art.

Check out the full gallery here and as always wrap it up.

You’ve heard the stories–your girlfriend SWEARS she was taking the pill faithfully and still wound up pregnant. You gave her the side-eye, but maybe she was telling the truth! Sometimes even if you are dilligent about taking the pill everyday, you might be doing other things that reduce it’s effectiveness.

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With all of the debate surrounding Planned Parenthood and the obvious right-wing attack on abortion, American women are being forced to reevaluate reproductive responsibility. Although a mere three percent of Planned Parenthood services can be attributed to abortions, the idea of terminating “unplanned” pregnancies is one to be reexamined.

Is getting pregnant after a one-night stand poor planning or a consequence of irresponsibility? After regular unprotected sex with your boyfriend, is it really a surprise to see a pregnancy test register positive? It would appear reproductive rights have become the remedy for poor decision-making.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a lot of spitting and cussing about wll.i.am’s comments during an Elle magazine interview about how “tacky” it is for single women to have condoms in their homes.

How vulgar.

I mean, really.  It’s soooo tacky to have some forethought and desire to preserve one’s health.

But I guess it’s not “tacky” that 73% of black children are born out-of-wedlock, many of whom were conceived because some black woman also believed it was tawdry to protect her vagina just in case her and her date got caught up in the heat of the moment.  And how crude of her to not want to be vulnerable to the high incidence of STD and HIV transmission within the black community?  Who the heck does she think she is, a white girl?

“His attitude is exactly that judgmental and condemning attitude that black men have about black women’s sexuality.  It puts black women in a box and makes the woman have to pretend to be something she’s not in order to meet the approval and acquire the affection of a man,” says Deborrah Cooper, relationship expert, radio personality and operator of SurvivngDating.com.

The sad truth is that young black women are force-fed this bull-donkey in church, and well-meaning family members that ‘good girls’ don’t buy condoms.   And when you get knocked up because there were no condoms in the side table, you can say it “just happened.”

The performer said this in his interview: “I just think, like, if you’re into someone and you guys get to that level, then that’s something you should converse about together and say, “Hey, maybe we should get some.”

Huh.  Okay; so you’re hot and heavy with a guy, clothes are off, and certain body parts are…uh…activated, and you expect people to stop getting down to have some type of DISCUSSION?

What do you think about women who have condoms, Madame Noire readers?

Christelyn D. Karazin is a health writer and the co-author of Swirling: How to Date, Mate and Relate Mixing Race Culture and Creed (to be released February 2012), and runs a blog, www.beyondblackwhite.com, dedicated to women of color who are interested and or involved in interracial and intercultural relationships. She is also the founder and organizer of “No Wedding, No Womb,” an initiative to find solutions to the 72 percent out-of-wedlock rate in the black community.  Join the #NWNW conversation on Twitter.

Can I write something with such a provocative title? I mean, where do you keep your Bible, mine rests on my nightstand. If I’m in a bold move my condoms might rest there too, giving my lover the clear notion that tonight the iPod will shuffle through the songs that will delight her ears while I journey on a quest to make her body shake and quake through the night. Or I might keep the condoms right under the head of the bed, no need to make the awkward naked trip to the closet or to my dresser drawer and lose the energy of the moment. But no matter which way I turn, I have to see my BIBLE.

My Bible, filled with books and lessons on what to do and what not to do. My Bible, the living testament of how God expects me to live my life. One cannot be judged for the wrongs they commit unknowingly but here I am about to sin and I’m forced to look my rulebook in the face. And yet it’s very existence will not tame the passion that has built up, the passion that I am trying to release, that she has built up that, she needs to release, that we need to RELEASE!

Well the truth is, God knows that I am having sex before marriage. And while that does not make it right, His presence is already around us so there is no need for us to cringe at the sight of the wisdom that lay next to a tool that will at least protect us most of the time from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

How many of us bring our spiritual selves into the bedroom, into our relationships in general. I mean sisters are freakin’ on Saturday night and in church on Sunday morning. Before you leave the crib do you ask us if we want to go? I mean that’s if we are seeing each other like that. God knows all we need is the church to gossip about how many jumpoffs you bring to church a month.

But think about it, no need to be ashamed of my Bible and I am da*n sure not going to be ashamed of my condoms. But if we knew each other on a deeper level maybe after we were done we could discuss God, my spiritual self and yours too.  This may sound wrong but it might even make the sex better because we are able to connect on more than a physical level. I’m not moving my condoms, because they are easily accessible so we don’t mess up the mood. And I’m not moving my Bible because if you and I are to ever really vibe, we have to address both, our spiritual self and our physical pleasure. Ladies don’t be afraid to teach and brothers don’t be afraid to learn and vice versa.

Have you ever played Russian Roulette? If you’re not familiar with the game; one places a single bullet in the barrel of a handgun and then twirls the chamber. You then raise the gun to your temple and pull the trigger. If you’re lucky, the gun just clicks and your anxiety reaches a peak you never knew existed before. If you’re unlucky, well sucks for you, you just committed suicide and you’re dead, laying “Kennedy style with your memory out” to quote a notable rapper.

So have you ever played Russian Roulette? Are you interested in playing this weekend? Probably not, but you might be more familiar with a different version of the same game. It goes a little like this —- “ooohh you feel so good, I just need to be inside you” sans condom. We play Russian Roulette every time we have unprotected sex with our partner(s).

We’re taking a chance with our lives. I’ve done it and God has spared me. I’ve even promised never to do it again because I was fortunate to hear the gun click and I’m still here. But others have not been so “lucky”.

Over 40% of new HIV infections are among African Americans ages 13-29. I’m in that age group, I’m African American, I have sex; so it’s reasonable to assume that I am at risk every time I sleep with a new partner. When I read this statistic; it frightened me beyond belief. Sadly that was last year’s statistic, last week the Center for Disease Control & Prevention released a new study with numbers that were even more grim than previous years. Though African Americans only make up 13.6% of the U.S. population, we account for 50.3% of all diagnosed cases of HIV. Deep down I ask myself “how do we combat HIV.”

Prevention. We can teach abstinence, the benefits of safe sex and the dangers of unprotected sex, i.e. STI’s. We can work with groups who help get folks tested so that they know their status because most people who spread STD’s don’t know that they have an STD. But really all of this has been done, is continuing to be executed and still we have these catastrophic numbers. Some of us are missing the message.

Then I thought about it. How do we teach someone to fight his or her lustful desires? I’ve heard stories of men going to Brazil looking for hot sex with beautiful women. An area that we all know is being ravaged by the HIV pandemic, yet brothers still come back with the virus. Why? They knew the risks down there, why didn’t they take the proper precautions to safeguard their lives?

“Son she looked so good, her a** was so fat. It clouded my vision. I’ve never been with someone so beautiful, I just wanted to feel her.” These are the responses from men, but like Snoop said “ain’t no p**** good enough to get burnt while I’m up in it”. How do we teach men and women that they’re not invincible, that they are playing with their lives every time they engage in unprotected sexual activity? How do we tell them that an act of lust can have life long repercussions? I don’t know the answer, I’m wondering how to tell myself this because as I have already stated, I have made the mistake myself.

Please feel free to respond and maybe we can brainstorm effective ways to reshape our community’s outlook on sex and the reality of contracting STD’s. If we don’t, we’re risking not only the health of our neighbors but ourselves.