Visual Culture and Health Posters

Title:: Sex Exposure without Prophylaxis

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Description:

Recognizing the limits of sex and moral education in generating self-restraint in soldiers, medical officers during the Second World War more openly promoted prophylaxis in the form of both condom distribution and chemical treatment for potential exposure to venereal disease. While critics suggested that anti-venereal disease campaigns should emphasize proper sexual behavior, this poster from the Army Air Forces Training Command in 1944 indicates an official understanding that within the wartime military most men would seek and find sex during their tenures. As a result, the armed forces established an efficient and practical program for treatment following possible exposure. This poster also uses a common strategy of equating venereal disease with helping the enemy, in this case suggesting that the failure to seek prophylaxis after sex was essentially a "pro-axis" decision to help the alliance between Japan, Italy, and Germany.

Number of Image Pages:

1 (757,396 Bytes)

Date:

1944

Creator:

United States Army Air Forces. Training Command

Source:

Original Repository: The History of Medicine Division. Prints and Photographs Collection.

This image may also be accessed from the Images from the History of Medicine (IHM).

URL: http://wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov/

IHM Order Number: A012003

Publisher:

United States Army Air Forces. Training Command

Rights:

This item is in the public domain. It may be used without permission.

Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Public Health

Visual Culture and Public Health Keywords:: Venereal Disease

Exhibit Category:

Infectious Disease

Unique Identifier:

VCBBBY

Document Type:

Posters

Slides (photographs)

Language:

English

Format:

image/jpeg

image/tif

Physical Condition:

Good

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2004-08-13

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