Better Condom Prize: Bill Gates

The big news is Bill Gates is offering a $100,000 prize for the invention of a superior condom.

As the wags on Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me noted this morning,  Two words which one would not want associated with a condom are "Micro"  and "Soft."

There were also remarks about a device coming from the Microsoft giant which ought to be effective against viruses.

Developing low cost, effective, simple and human power driven water pumps for clean water in African villages is something folks of all political and religious persuasion can rally around;  but for condoms, we've still got Catholics who believe if we do not talk about or plan for sex, it will not happen.  Or that when it does, it's God's will, especially if pregnancy results, even if it's pregnancy accompanied by HIV infection, which is all too common. 

Got to give Mr. Gates points for trying.

Planned Parenthood has the better idea.  Planned Parenthood understands it's not the construction or the experience of the condom which is the problem; it's the availability.  The bashful, painfully shy adolescent boy who does not plan in advance much would likely use condoms if he did not have to walk into a store and purchase them from  some matronly clerk, who looks like his mother. If there were a condom machine in every middle and high school bathroom, it would be regularly vandalized, need constant upkeep, but it would do far more to prevent teen aged pregnancy and venereal disease than a better condom. If every bar had a condom dispenser, then the male patron, or the female patron, who has just met his or her sexually attractive opposite number could pay a quick trip to the bathroom and emerge equipped to prevent a one night stand from becoming an incubating fetus.

Mr. Gates, as far as the Phantom can discern, is a pretty benign billionaire. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates maybe one or two others have done well by their fellow man, have their hearts in the right place. 

But let us not forget the much beleaguered Planned Parenthood, which has been doing God's work for decades, and is in the cross hairs of every wacko right wing moron for the same amount of time.

Mr. Gates has made his fortune as an engineer, solving all sorts of technical problems. He was also adept at divining what sorts of engineered products would appeal to the minds of buyers.  What Planned Parenthood does is to solve problems which have a scientific basis, but the science is pretty straightforward; what is not so straightforward is solving the sociological, the anthropological (values) and the psychological forces which prevents condom use.  

Even college educated men will say "Using a condom is like taking a shower in a raincoat."  That this is not in fact even remotely accurate, has not prevented this catchy slogan, a sort of machismo chant, from providing cover for stupidity. Nobody ever says, "Having sex without a condom is like sky diving without a parachute: it can be fun for about 12 minutes but it gets messy in the end."

 Mr. Gates might be well advised to fund Planned Parenthood directly, of if he finds that too fraught with political problems, create his own organization which does the same thing.