ideological issues surrounding the HPV vaccine

Due to the intense public information campaign which is currently taking place across Canada concerning the HPV vaccine, many Canadian women of all ages are evaluating their beliefs on a range of sexual health issues. Such issues include but do not exclude personal practices, past, partner choice, frequency of STI testing, and the often feared sexual practices of young people. However after being subjected to one too many HPV commercials and looking into the faces of one too many women who are preemptively opening their eyes to the dangers of HPV, I question, where are all the boys within the sphere of this debate?
This may seem like a ridiculous comment as boys or indeed men clearly are not borne with cervixes and thus, by defect, can not get cervical cancer. However, what these ads fail to illuminate is the simple fact that yes, boys too can get HPV and are ‘half of the equation when it comes to sex and therefore sexually transmitted diseases,’ as argued by Medline Plus an American medical organization. If infected with HPV boys are at increased risk for genital, throat, and anal cancers which are less common, but no less deadly. So this further begs question stated above, where are all the boys?
The simple answer is the vaccine was not originally tested on boys and can not be given to males at this time. The more complicated answer stems from asking why not? Why do Canadian health policies support the testing and distribution of a vaccine which can prevent the contraction, spread, and tragic death of girls and women from HPV, but not boys and men? Are these girls somehow contracting the virus alone through having sex with themselves? The answer to these questions is implicit within the Canadian ideology of women’s health.
Instead of addressing the issue from a gender neutral perspective, the HPV campaign is consistent with the ideology that sexual health is within the sole sphere of women’s health. This public information campaign implies that HPV is solely a women’s issue through omitting mention of both male and females’ equal responsibilities for preventing the virus through safer sex practices. The onus is therefore placed solely on women and now girls, to ensure that this virus does not affect their own, or their partners’ health. While HPV IS a health issue, it is not solely a women’s health issue. The issues aroused by the introduction of an HPV vaccine (personal practices, sexual past and partner choice, frequency of STI tests, and the sexual practices of young people) are issues that affect Canadian women and men. I therefore, consider it to be offensive and dangerous that they are not being portrayed by Canada’s current health policies as such.