Plenty Of Syph to go around!

    By nowI'm pretty sure everyones heard of the website Plenty Of Fish, where people sign in and look at the available people do date, or something like that. Personally I've never been on it. Anyway, what most people probably haven't heard of but should know about is plentyofsyph.com. It's basically a fun and interactive way of presenting info about syphilis, and best of all it's Canadian, run out of Alberta.

   While I obviously agree with the idea of spreading the word and providing options for those who have, or are at the risk of having, any sexually transmitted infections or diseases, the way this website is set up is kind of confusing. And I don't mean navigating around the website itself, but the way it's presented as a dating site can really throw you off guard. A friend of mine who is also in our Sociology of Youth class was working on her blog about Plenty Of Syph at her boyfriend's house, and he thought it was an actual dating website where people with syphilis could go browse other people with the disease. That's kind of a problem in my opinion that some people really aren't grasping the irony or how they're mocking dating websites. I'm pretty sure she eventually got through to him about what the website is about but still..
   What I do like about the website is that it's really informative and can be really useful for people who are at risk or who think they might have symptoms of syphilis. Upon entering the website, you enter your age, gender (or sex, i can't remember.. probably gender), and who you're interested in, then it sends you to a page to 'browse the singles' that you were matched up with. If you click on any of the people, their 'profile' comes up and it shows you what stage of the disease they are supposedly at and their infectibility, or how easily it would be for you to get infected if you were to have intercourse with them. Then it provides information about each stage and yada yada yada.
   Now, I say profile in quotations and supposedly because if you read the disclaimer at the bottom, all of these people they show are actually models and their profiles are made up for informational use only. I heard somewhere that if you're a model you have to sign some kind of contract that allows your picture to be used in the public domain, they even have a website: publicdomainpictures.net. Anyway, personally if I was a model I wouldn't be too happy to know that my picture is being used on a website that depicts me having syphilis but then again I'm not a model.
   Another thing about this website is that their usernames, though made up, are mostly related to sex which I find interesting. It's almost saying that everyone on a dating website is in it for the sex or they are sluts. But most of them are actually kind of funny, so I think that's more what they were going for anyway. Either way, it's an interesting approach to an otherwise very serious topic.