Menu
Idea

sexually transmitted infections

35
Filter by:

Filter by published date

A photograph of two Guatemalan women infected with syphillis in U.S. experiements, their eyes covered by black bars.

The Hidden U.S. Experiments in Guatemala

The U.S. purposefully infected thousands of Guatemalans with sexually-transmitted diseases in the 40s and 50s. Their grandchildren still carry the trauma.
by Lydia Crafts via Process: A Blog for American History on April 9, 2024

A Forgotten War on Women

Scott W. Stern’s book documents a decades-long program to incarcerate “promiscuous” women.
by Kim Kelly via The New Republic on May 22, 2018
Mug shot of 18-year-old Lucille Crouse.

Kansas Locked Up More Than 5,000 Women and Girls for Having STDs

“The law itself was very, very broad.”
by Aaron Barnhart via Timeline on March 1, 2018

How the Military Waged a Graphic-Design War on Venereal Disease

"Fool the Axis—use Prophylaxis!"In many ways, such a coordinated public effort to alter sexual behavior was unprecedented.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on February 11, 2015
Illustration of sex workers behind waving American flag.

How the United States Tried to Get on Top of the Sex Trade

Why should American exceptionalism end at the red-light district?
by Rebecca Mead via The New Yorker on December 9, 2024
Eleanor Roosevelt speaking at a podium.

The Women She Left Behind

Eleanor Roosevelt’s tacit support for a program that jailed sex workers suggests the limits of the elite-led reform efforts she championed.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via New York Review of Books on September 18, 2024
Tuskegee syphilis study.

All We Want is the Facts…Or Not

Shedding light on the truth of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
by Susan Reverby via Nursing Clio on July 25, 2024
Emily Brooks.

When NYC Invented Modern Policing: On WWII–Era Surveillance and Discrimination

From the 1880s to the 1940s, New York City was transformed—and so too was the New York City Police Department.
by Matthew Guariglia, Emily M. Brooks via Public Books on April 2, 2024
A flower.

A Structural History of American Public Health Narratives

Rereading Priscilla Wald’s "Contagious" and Nancy Tomes’ "Gospel of Germs" amidst a 21st-century pandemic.
by Amy Mackin via Assay Journal on March 25, 2023
Rainbow stripe with a bag of blood superimposed over it

Gay Blood Donors: Benching our “Heroes”?

Deferrals for gay men who wish to donate blood are outdated, stigmatizing, unnecessary, and need to be removed.
by Gennady Vulakh via Nursing Clio on October 6, 2022
On August 8, 2022, activists protest the lack of monkeypox vaccine and treatment access outside the San Francisco Federal Building.

What the AIDS Crisis Can Teach Us About Monkeypox

Harm reduction strategies, like those pioneered by queer men of color, have the best chance of stopping this disease.
by Joshua Gutterman Tranen via Boston Review on October 3, 2022
A police officer on a horse in a city street
partner

The Problem With Asking Police to Enforce Public Health Measures

Policing public health is likely to result in increased racial disparities.
by Emily M. Brooks via Made By History on August 10, 2020
A mug shot of Linda Taylor

COVID-19 and Welfare Queens

Fears about “undeserving” people receiving public assistance have deep ties to racism and the policing of black women’s bodies.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via Boston Review on April 17, 2020
North Street, Boston, in 1894.

The Universal Cause

A history of reformers targeting sex trafficking in pursuit of other aims.
by Hallie Lieberman via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 6, 2019

An Enduring Shame

A new book chronicles the shocking, decades-long effort to combat venereal disease by locking up girls and women.
by Heather Ann Thompson via New York Review of Books on October 7, 2018
A depiction of the female reproduction system in an early sex ed film.

Slut-Shaming, Eugenics, and Donald Duck

The scandalous history of sex-ed movies.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on December 12, 2014

Queer Activists and the Struggle for AIDS Education

Queer resistance to state-sponsored oppression campaigns, from Reagan to Trump.
by Lucy Kelly via History Workshop on March 6, 2025
Profile outlines of four people standing in line.

Every New Disease Triggers a Search for Someone to Blame

Focusing on a virus’s origins encourages individualized shame while ignoring the broader societal factors that contribute to a disease’s transmission.
by Steven Thrasher via The Atlantic on July 31, 2022
Illustration of Asian woman surrounded by flowers

Sex, Death, and Empire: The Roots of Violence Against Asian Women

The line from America’s earliest empire in the Philippines to Japan, Korea, Vietnam—and anti-Asian violence at home—is straight, clear, and written in blood.
by Panthea Lee via The Nation on April 18, 2022
Two types of intrauterine devices, copper and hormonal, such as Mirena or Skyla
partner

Abortion Opponents Are Gunning For Contraception, Too

Efforts to roll back abortion and contraception access aim to control women’s sexuality.
by Anya Jabour via Made By History on March 25, 2022
Collage: a pair of arms wraps around collections of newspapers reporting on AIDS and plays guitar strings.

An AIDS Activist's Archive

June Holmes was in her late twenties, working as a social worker on Long Island, when she first heard about “this thing called AIDS.”
by Scott Wasserman Stern via New York Review of Books on October 29, 2021
Mabel Dodge Luhan

The Strange Revival of Mabel Dodge Luhan

The memoirist is at the center of two new, very different books: a biography of D. H. Lawrence and a novel by Rachel Cusk. Has she been rescued or reduced?
by Rebecca Panovka via The New Yorker on June 2, 2021
Linda Kay Klein as a teenager
partner

Shamed Over Sex, a Generation Confronts the Past

Former followers of an evangelical “purity” movement that promoted a strict view of abstinence are grappling with aftershocks.
via Retro Report on April 6, 2021

Stop Blaming Tuskegee, Critics Say. It's Not An 'Excuse' for Current Medical Racism

It's the health inequities of today, not the infamous "Tuskegee Study," that explain many Black people's distrust of the American health system.
by April Dembosky via NPR on March 23, 2021

Paper Products. Powder Rooms. What Past Pandemics Left Behind Forever.

Disease reshapes our lives in surprising ways.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on March 23, 2021
Artwork that says "Bury me fiercely" and features imagery of a face mask and cross

You Are Witness to a Crime

In ACT UP, belonging was not conferred by blood. Care was offered when you joined others on the street with the intent to bring the AIDS crisis to an end.
by Debra Levine via The Baffler on January 5, 2021
A map of the origins of illnesses across the world.

The Name Blame Game

A history of inflammatory illness epithets.
by Haisam Hussein via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 14, 2020
Comedy troupe on stage.

Finding the Funny

Historians’ lectures provide material for improv comedians.
by Laura Ansley via Perspectives on History on May 13, 2020
Nurse Minnie Sun holding a baby in the Chinese Hospital

When Chinese Americans Were Blamed for 19th-Century Epidemics, They Built Their Own Hospital

The Chinese Hospital in San Francisco is still one-of-a-kind.
by Laureen Hom, Claire Wang via Atlas Obscura on April 13, 2020

Keep it Clean: The Surprising 130-Year History of Handwashing

Until the mid-1800s, doctors didn’t bother washing their hands. Then a Hungarian medic made an essential, much-resisted breakthrough.
by Amy Fleming via The Guardian on March 18, 2020
View More
30 of
35

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History