The quest for finding a safe method of birth control that won’t interfere with the sensations that come along with intimate moments between a couple is centuries old. The condom has played a major role in this quest dating back through ancient history. While the materials used to make the condom have varied over the years, not much has changed with the design of the safe-sex product through the centuries.
The Jiftip Company has a new invention that is so tiny and simple you may wonder why someone else hasn’t thought of this before now. After seeing just what this new Jiftip can do for the user, you may understand why no one else has acted on this thought before today, according to what Slate has to say about this new invention for birth control.
The Jiftip is a sticker that goes over the tip of a penis and it acts like a cork of sorts, as it keeps the bodily fluid of semen from exiting. As Slate nicely explains, these little stickers are sold for men to “affix them to the tips of their penises, sealing off the hole to keep any and all the ejaculate inside.”
Slate also reminds their readers that “shutting off a natural exit of bodily fluids” is not only “ill advised,” but more than likely an impossible feat. But that is where the directions for the use of these stickers come into play.
The website for the Jiftip claims nothing gets “in or out” during the course of sexual activity until that sticker or “barrier” is removed. But it is when you have to remove that safety device that’s a bit perplexing.
Should you seal your penis shut with this insane sticker instead of using condoms? https://t.co/NcwFdBDj8O pic.twitter.com/ZXDo2bD38b
— Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) August 2, 2017
The directions indicate that the user of this condom alternative must “pull out” and remove the sticker before the moments of climax. That little disclaimer is followed by one that says the Jiftip is not to be used for prevention of pregnancy or to prevent the transmission of STIs. This brings up the question of — What benefit does this Jiftip product offer?
It sounds as if you have to rip off this adhesive sticker from the tip of your penis during the height of ecstasy and the disclaimer states that it is not a safeguard against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. So what particular problem was this meant to solve?
The kicker might be in the advertising of this sticker, “Sex is simple, why make it complicated.” But has this Jiftip lived up to that expectation? The writer from Slate, Christina Cauterucci’, offers a comical critique of the product. One of the only uses she suggests for this sticker is to prevent the collection of lint in that hole. Her theory is “Jiftip is counting on a fair number of curious, gullible dudes to drop $6 on a pack of the stickers just to see what’s what.”
The quest for finding a better form of birth control while safeguarding against transmitting diseases during sex has been going on for centuries and not one device or strategy has out shined the use of a condom as of yet. Except of course the practice of abstinence. From what the experts have to say about plugging up your penis with a sticker, it’s safe to say there’s still nothing to safely take the place of the condom today.
USA Today is another publication questioning the benefits and safety of this new invention, or rather the new use of an old product… the sticker. Their thoughts are conveyed in the tweet below.
The "Jiftip" is touted as a way to "Feel your partner, Feel Freedom, Feel Safe." Except it's not exactly safe. https://t.co/xFmw0wgA9V
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 3, 2017
Jamin Brahmbhatt, who is a physician with Orlando Health, said that the folks who visit the Jiftip website may not get to the small print. It is important to heed the website’s disclaimer, which says that Jiftip is not a product that intended for use to prevent pregnancy or STI’s, according to USA Today.
The controversial stickers made news this week, so chances are more people will check out the Jiftip website, but doctors say this concept is “risky.” USA Today writes that “Brahmbhatt notes that the entire marketing campaign around the product is alarming.”
A bit of condom history:
The first mention of an attempt to use a condom-like apparatus made out of an animal bladder goes back to the Bronze Age. The Ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to use sheaths as condoms made from animal bladders and the history of the condom continues with not much changing until the invention of rubber.
The condom was first made of rubber back in the 1860’s by the same man whose surname is still on many of the tires on vehicles today, Charles Goodyear. Before Goodyear’s invention of rubber, condoms were made from different materials throughout different countries. The use of animal sheaths as condoms was the most popular until the modernization of the rubber condom.
The next and final step of improving the condom came with latex, which was first discovered in the 1920s and eventually made its way to the condom industry. This is what is still used today.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health (NCBI), their research indicates the first use of a condom is found in ancient history. They discovered the first mention of a condom dates back to the wife of King Minos of Crete.
She used a goat’s bladder to line her vagina to keep her husband’s semen from harming her. The sperm of King Minos was thought to contain “scorpions and serpents” after his previous mistresses had died.
This was also the first mention of an attempt to use a condom-like device to have safe sex and guard against disease. Condoms have played a significant part in the prevention of venereal diseases throughout history.
The ancient Roman women not only used the bladders of animals as a condom-type device to guard against pregnancy but to also prevent venereal diseases. While the condom has come a long way since ancient times, it doesn’t appear that this invention of a penis sticker will make it into the history books as an alternative.
[Featured Image by Leona Kali/Shutterstock]
