First, the quote:
ELLE: If you walked into a woman’s house, what one item would convince you that you weren’t compatible?
W: If she had condoms in her house, that would just f-ckin’ throw me off. That’s just tacky.
Wait, what? I don’t even know where to begin with how all kinds of wrong he is.
First, while it is certainly fine for him to have this opinion, I think it’s terribly irresponsible of him to voice it in such a manner. Sure, most of us don’t turn to him for guidelines on living, but he has lots of young, impressionable fans. If even one of them takes his message to heart, and gets rid of her tacky condom stash, then there’s an excellent chance she will end up with an STI or a baby. I realize we aren’t particularly concerned with holding celebrities accountable for their actions, and all of the blame certainly wouldn’t go to Will.i.am in such a situation. But if I were famous, I wouldn’t share those thoughts in a print magazine interview, for a female demographic.
My second issue is that I doubt his issue is actually with condoms, specifically. He is uncomfortable with what they represent – a sexually active woman. To him, condoms presumably indicate a woman who has sex often, or with various partners, or outside of a commited relationship. No matter that condoms don’t actually for sure equal any of those…for Will, it’s enough that she MIGHT be such a woman. Here are just a few of the types of women I know that keep condoms on hand:
-Women who may occasionally enjoy casual sex, and are smart enough to keep protection on hand in case the need arises
-Women in serious, committed relationships that are not ready to get pregnant
-Women who are trying to be a good influence on or resource for their friends that don’t always practice safe sex
-Women with semen allergies (yes, that’s a real thing)
-Women who physically can’t tolerate other forms of birth control like the pill or shot
-Woman who want to be prepared for a worst case scenario where they might be raped or date raped
-Women who use sex toys or unconventional sex props like vegetables for solo fun
-Women who love other women & use toys or props for couples fun
-Women with boyfriends/husbands/lovers that enjoy pegging (using toys on the male)
-Women who are virgins, but plan to change that at some point in the undetermined future
-Women in high school & college who have been given free condoms
-Women who want to learn how to properly put on & dispose of a condom
-Women who are commited to a partner but concerned that the partner isn’t faithful
-Women in industries like pornography where condoms are a necessary safety measure
-Sluts (smart sluts, natch)
Finally, wtf is this man doing talking about tacky when his band has song titles like “My Hump” and oh when he regularly sports ridiculous outfits like this:
