Welcome to The Red Knob
These days AIDS seems to have become, for good or evil, just another disease in Venus’s armoury
Neil Gaiman
Venus’s Armour?
It’s appropriate that The Red Knob blog has been started on World AIDS Day, a day we set aside to consider the many people around the globe affected by an infection that has sex as one of it’s main causes of transmission – a sexually transmitted infection that can be prevented by the simple act of wearing a condom.
The Red Knob?
The Red Knob is a small social enterprise company in the UK that provides resources, consultancy and training on sexual health work with hard-to-reach young men. Rather than use only sociological approaches that focus on ‘masculinities’ to deliver our work, The Red Knob also makes use of approaches that consider the biology, psychology, environmental, and cultural factors that affect young men to create a social marketing mix to deliver work – work that acknowledges the issue of gender sensitivity.
This does not mean that our work does not have an equal opportunities basis – merely that it acknowledges that different approaches may be needed to work with different genders – and within the male gender that approaches need to take into account the issue of masculinities – and also the biology, cultural etc factors that influence masculine behaviours. Hence our work is not afraid to make use of humour and language or shock and show, ‘fear appeals’ approaches that some people may find offensive, but are relevant to the cultures some young men inhabit – i.e. we endorse a ‘horses for courses’ approach.
If you want to find out more take a look at our website at www.theredknob.co.uk
About the Red Knob Blog
This is a blog about sexual health – and about sex itself; afterall we wouldn’t be here without it! It gives us a chance to highlight issues around sexual health, to have a bit of fun, and to provide a forum for discussion of sexual health issues and work with young men.
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is a day where we consider those affected by HIV/AIDS – however whilst we may stop and pause to think for a day, this is not an issue that is going to go away. Every day is World AIDS Day; anyone regardless of race, religion, culture, gender, or sexuality can be affected. It doesn’t discriminate. HIV/AIDS can be a life-threatening infection – as are some other sexually transmitted infections if they’re not treated. All sexually transmitted infections can be unpleasant – some such as Chlamydia, whilst not life-threatening can have a devastating affect on fertility. There ‘s a lot more to safer sex than wearing a condom – but if a condom is Venus’s armour then it’s the first step in protecting yourself and any partner against infections that can cause a lot of misery. Stay safe – have fun.
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