The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in SA recently stated that “in South Africa, new HIV infections in women aged 15-24 are nearly four times greater than men of the same age, with 850 young women becoming infected with HIV every week”.

The response to the publishing of these statistics was largely centred around the shaming of young women. Men were using this to bash young women for dating “blessers” and the conversation was centred around young men having to protect themselves from these “loose” women – relegating the possibility of their own infection to young women, instead of themselves, as if they can't be HIV positive as a result of their own behaviour.  ..