Men vs. Women

[sweet66]

I was just watching the Ella Dawson interview video. I actually found her long before I found this website. She has since retired from herpes blogging (if i understand correctly) and now concentrates on sexual health. She received so much abuse and hate over the internet for essentially becoming a face of herpes. I'm wondering if Arial has experienced anything similar. I'm wondering if simply being a woman makes one more of a target once she has disclosed. As someone who has kept very private about my diagnosis, I would love to hear about anyone's experience publicly disclosing? Arial, how has your "face of herpes" experience been as compared to Ella? Thanks.

[sweet66]

and might i add in this current political climate where hate seems to be the new rage.

[optimist]

She did write a blog post about her decision to retire from writing about herpes. It sounded to me like she was burned out and felt like it was time for other voices to be heard for a variety of reasons (diversity of backgrounds, experiences, etc.). Like you mentioned, it sounds like she was the target of a lot of slut-shaming. This happened after she began emphasizing she was not ashamed of having genital herpes. It seems many people are emotionally invested in others feeling ashamed. Considering Ella Dawson has HSV1, as most humans do, I can only assume the shaming is about contracting it in a place that allows others to infer she has engaged in sex as a single woman. She is also open about continuing to do so without shame and I'm grateful to her for being an example in that regard. It also sounded to me like she felt it was getting harder for her to be the compassionate person she is. I feel for her.

[sweet66]

yep she is amazing. she is one gutsy woman, and she hasn't been shy about how hard it's been on her. cyber bullies are heartless, shameless and relentless. i don't think i have the stomach for it. i feel for her too.