Short Film Explores What It's Like To Find Out You Have An STI

A new short film from BuzzFeed Yellow shows just how terrifying it can be to find out you have a sexually transmitted infection.The video titled Getting Tested features a young woman going to the doctor to find out if she has an STI. The film is an important reminder of how easily people can contract STIs; it doesnt matter how many people youve slept with or if youvemostly had safe sex ' a lot of it comes down to bad luck.As the young woman is laying on the doctors table getting the exam, she says, This is really not like me...Ive only had sex with, like, five people. The doctor tells her she might have genital herpes,but its much more common that most people realize. One in every sixpeople in the United States has genital herpes.The woman struggles to come to terms with possibly having an STI. She has to deal with the aftermath of telling her current partner that he needs to get tested. Later, she grapples with casually dating again. BuzzFeed producer and co-writer of Getting Tested Ali Vingiano told The Huffington Post that they decided to tackle the topic of STIs because its not discussed enough in mainstream culture.We decided to write something about STIs to try to normalize how we talk about them, and the people we associate with having them, Vingiano said. We were interested in showing this happen to somebody who seemed like she could be your friend, who isnt particularly sexually promiscuous, and who had always tried to be safe. In film and television, STIs typically serve as nothing more than a punchline, so we wanted to challenge that narrative and broaden our viewers ideas of what the reality of an STI looked like.As the womans friend says to her towards the end of the film: You dont have to date shitty people because a shitty thing might have happened to you. You deserve to be happy.Practicing safe sex isalwaysimportant, but sometimes a shitty thing happens ' and its not a reflection of your character or worth. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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