Body Positivity Condom Crawl
Alexis Moff
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Planned Parenthood: “everyone Wellness and Health Promotion
deserves a life that is healthy, Services: “to promote a culture of
happy, and free from shame and well-being where students identify and
stigma.” Planned Parenthood strives practice lifelong skills that improve
to provide health care, information, quality of life.” They seek to create an
and education to every member of inclusive, safe, and non-judgmental
the community, to help lead the environment for everyone to receive
Reproductive Health and Rights the tools they need to increase their
Movement, and advancing global social and physical well-being.
health.
BOTH Planned Parenthood and Wellness and Health Promotion Services
donated condoms and educational material to this condom crawl. The
Regional Organizer for planned parenthood, Jamie Clinton, donated her
time and services to the event.
BODY IMAGE
There is a connection between self-esteem and behavior. A negative
body image can lead to high-risk behaviors and a lack of
motivation to take care of oneself. This is especially common in
adolescence. Low self-esteem and high depressive symptoms have been
linked to not wearing a condom during sexual intercourse and an increase in
the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases.
Body positivity is a social movement that started in 1996. The mission of
The Body Positive is “to create a lively, healing community that offers
freedom from suffocating societal messages that keep people in a perpetual
struggle with their bodies.”
CONNECTIONS TO COURSE
The course I am taking is WST 3500, Gender and Community Activism.
This course is a part of the women’s and gender studies program at the
University of Central Florida. The course applies a feminist perspective to
current community issues. The goal of the course is to focus on activism
and social justice related to gender, race, class, sexuality, the environment,
and globalization. The course shows the intersectionality between feminist
issues, reproductive and health issues, and LGBTQ issues.
Women often feel the stigma of reaching out for help, but this is not isolated
to women only. Gabriel Martínez came to speak to our class about HIV
transmission and epidemic. He focused on the fact that a lack of education
leads to HIV transmission, but he also spoke to class about the negative
stigma and shame associated with sex, especially for the LGBTQ
community. This and the fact that women have struggled with sexuality and
body image gave me the idea for this project. Many people have faced
difficult issues and actions such as slut shaming, gay bashing, and trans
bashing. This project uplifts people in the community, gives them a sense of
pride about their body, and shows them access to easy and convenient ways
to protect their body. Everyone’s BODY is something to be
valued and protected.
Planned Parenthood has widened their view of who they can help in the
community from just women initially to include all members of the
community. Wellness and Health promotional services wants to improve the
well-being of the community and diminish the stigma that many people in
their community face. This project is important and necessary in the field of
Women’s Studies, because it can help reduce stigma, negative body image,
and encourage people to help and protect themselves
With Jamie Clinton from Planned Parenthood
PROJECT OVERVIEW PURPOSE
The project began with the idea that body positivity can lead to not only an increase in self-esteem, but, in the right The purpose of this event is two-fold; to decrease negative body image and
environment, can lead to an increase in sexual health. I wanted to create this environment for the students at UCF. Younger to, also, encourage safe-sex and routine testing.
people tend to have lower self-esteem and the condom crawls that Planned Parenthood already hosts are not on the campus. The bags that were handed out included testing information, planned
Many places on campus have free testing and locations for free condoms, but students do not know about those locations or parenthood information, condoms, and lubrication. People who received
are uncomfortable going to these locations. This condom crawl gives those student access to the information they need to them now have information on free testing and are equipped to practice safe
protect themselves from STD’s and possibly some motivation to do so. sex. Also, the bags included a body positivity message. They said “you’re
First, I did research on the body positive movement. I wanted to understand how body positivity works and the kinds of this beautiful” on one side and had one of ten body positivity quotes on the other
that are effective when combatting negative self-image. I settled on a palm-card that I designed. On the front was a heart and side. This inspires positive thoughts about the reader’s body and increases
the statement, “you are beautiful.” On the back of each card was one of ten quotes. Some of these quotes can be seen in the their self-esteem.
image to the right. They were printed and cut to palm-size for each bag.
This was done on a college campus, because young adults and adolescence
The next step was to receive the materials for the bags. Planned parenthood have lower self-esteem, at higher risk of depression, and are more likely to
supplied condoms and lubricant, along with some of their informational material. I engage in unprotected sex. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and
requested 150 condoms from Wellness and Health Promotion Services. They gave Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 20 million new STIs occur every
me 500 in response and their information on free HIV testing. The bags included year in this country, half of those among young people aged 15–24.
two condoms, lubricant, and all of the informational material (can be seen in the
image on the left). REFLECTIONS
Several volunteers, Jamie Clinton, and I put together about 250 baggies to distribute around the UCF campus. We can be This project was incredible. Looking back on this, I am so proud of
seen making them in the image below. We created an assembly line in which everyone put in a different thing. We made everything we were able to accomplish. This was the first activist project
the bags with the “you are beautiful” palm-cards facing out in front, so it is the first thing everyone would see when they that was conceived, led, and carried out by me.
grab the bag. The event was much bigger than I had imagined it would be. Initially, I had
planned on making about 100 bags to hand out to the students by myself or
maybe with the help of Jamie Clinton. When I made the request for
condoms and described what I was doing to Wellness and Health
Promotion Services, I requested 150 condoms. They
emailed me back approving me for 500 condoms. We were
able to recruit 8 volunteers, plus Jamie and I, and make 250 bags to hand
out with two condoms each.
The one thing that I felt would have made this project better is if it could
have been a little more inclusive. I would have liked to have put oral sex
condoms or dental dams in the bag. Some people told me that they did not
want to take the bags because they did not use condoms. It is possible that
some of these people would have benefitted from a variety of STD
Finally, on Monday, November 26, 2018, eight volunteers, Jamie Clinton, and I distributed the 250 baggies around the UCF campus. We split up in groups of two protection being in the bags.
and passed the bags around the UCF campus.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IMPACT Although this project was my creation and I did carry it out, this
project
would not have moved past the planning stage without the
The impact we made was larger than I expected. We were able to pass out condoms and information to almost 250 students around the campus. We broke up into
help of Jamie Clinton, Regional Organizer for Planned Parenthood. I
groups of two to be able to target different areas on the Campus. I made a map that circles the most densely populated areas on campus and those were some of the
came to her with a seedling of an idea and she helped cultivate it and grow
areas we went to. We hade the most interest in front of the Student Union.
it into an event. She supplied the volunteers, some of the material, and the
organization and energy needed to carry it out. I would not have been able
There were many people that were interested and took the bags. People
seemed to be interested in the testing information also. I had one gentleman to do it without her support and Planned Parenthood. I would also like to
ask me about the free testing that is available and I explained it to him. I told thank Christina Bernhardt, Sexual Wellness Graduate Assistant at Wellness
him about the rapid HIV testing at the Wellness center. I had one girl that & Health Promotion Services, for supplying the condoms and testing
took the bag and say, “with my luck lately I won’t be needing them” material.
(referring to the condoms). I told her to check the message for her in the bag
and when she did, she thanked me and she smiled.
REFERENCES
Marc, Smolowitz, and Fockele Jörg. Still Around. Outcast Films, 2011.
If the event was able to even help one person seek testing or one person have
a more positive body image then I believe it was a success.
Parenthood, Planned. “Birth Control, STD Testing & Abortion - Orlando,
FL.” Planned Parenthood, www.plannedparenthood.org/health-
center/florida/orlando/32817/east-orlando-health-center-2857-90300.
Shrier, Lydia A., et al. “Associations of Depression, Self-Esteem, and
Substance Use with Sexual Risk among Adolescents.” Preventive Medicine,
vol. 33, no. 3, 2001, pp. 179–189., doi:10.1006/pmed.2001.0869.
“Welcome to The Body Positive.” Welcome to The Body Positive,
www.thebodypositive.org/.
“Wellness & Health Promotion Services » UCF.” Free Fresh Local Produce
» Wellness & Health Promotion Services » UCF, whps.sdes.ucf.edu/.