5 Fun Facts You Never Know About Condoms

 5.     Most Condoms Are Too Big For Indian Men

Unfortunately for the men of India, they tend to fall on the lower end of the spectrum. In 2006, a study on penis size done by the Indian Council of Medical Research made headlines when it was discovered that approximately 60 percent of surveyed Indian men had penises several centimeters shorter than the standard used in producing condoms. This disparity led to a high rate of failure, with condoms tearing or falling off about 20 percent of the time, a serious issue given the prevalence of AIDS.

This problem is hardly confined to India. In 2015, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health made the announcement that sexually transmitted diseases among the country’s youth had increased nearly fivefold in a decade. According to the statement, “It is due to the fact that only 43 percent (of teenagers) use condoms—and also because they choose condoms that are too big for their actual sizes and they are afraid they will be mocked for being too small.”

 4. Bill Gates

 Software magnate Bill Gates is well known for his philanthropy, pledging billions to various causes around the globe, including fighting disease, education, and agricultural development. In 2013, he announced his intention to provide inventors with $100,000 start-up grants to create new and improved condoms. The goal is to create an ultra-thin condom that delivers the maximum amount of sexual pleasure while still being safe, going on the theory that many men refuse to wear them due to lack of feeling.

Thus far, two grants have been issued. One went to the University of Manchester, which is pioneering a condom made from an ultralight form of carbon called graphene. The other went to the University of Oregon for a condom made of polyurethane that makes a seal around the penis and isless than half the thickness of currently available condoms. Unlike many of his other causes, like fighting malaria, Gates concedes that improving the condom could bring in a fortune and is likely to attract investors.

 3. Legality 

Ireland is hardly the only country that has had legal restrictions on condoms. The United States has also had a dubious relationship with rubbers. In the 18th century,
animal intestines were used, but in 1839, Charles Goodyear introduced a way of vulcanizing rubber and the condom industry exploded. The industry was dealt a tremendous blow in 1873 when the federal government passed the Comstock Law, which made it illegal to mail various sexually related articles, including erotic literature, sex toys, and condoms. The bias against condoms (often said to encourage promiscuity) endured for decades afterward. When the United States entered World War I, they were the only Allied power that did not supply their troops with condoms, resulting in thousands of cases of venereal disease like gonorrhea and syphilis.

Even today, when Americans of all ages can purchase condoms both in stores and through the mail, the possession of condoms can be used against people in a court of law. Upon arresting people suspected to be sex workers, having condoms on their person is seen as evidence of a crime. Sadly, this has led to many prostitutes neglecting to carry condoms for fear of police harassment, thus risking infection by sexually transmitted diseases. One of the most progressive places in the country, California, was one of the first states to prohibit the possession of condoms being used against a person in court.

 

 2.   Olympics 

Behind all the pomp and circumstance of the Olympics, there
is a seedy underbelly of unchecked liaisons. In short, Olympians hump like rabbits. It makes perfect sense, really; lumping thousands of young people at the peak of physical perfection into dorm rooms is the very recipe for love (or, at least, one component of it). What is truly astonishing is just how active they are. During the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, 6,582 male athletes participated. Officials distributed 70,000 condoms, which works out to over 10 per person. Insanely enough, they ran out and had to put in an emergency order for another 20,000 condoms.

Later games were more generous with the supplies. Officials at 2014’s Sochi Winter Games distributed 100,000 condoms (an average of about 35 condoms per athlete), and a staggering 150,000 free condoms were given out at the 2012 London Olympics. Even that might not have been enough—officials at the London Games found a bucket of unauthorized condoms from an Australian company. The bucket read “Kangaroos condoms, for the gland downunder.”

 1. The Cold War

The Cold War was assuredly one of the strangest chapters in all of human history. Beneath the surface, intelligence agencies like the CIA and the KGB worked tirelessly to undermine their enemies. While many of their schemes were murderous and sinister, others were just downright ridiculous, like “Operation Acoustic Kitty,” which sought to use a cat with an implanted microphone as a spy. Of course, condoms were not exempt from their machinations.

There is a story, possibly an in-joke, that the CIA’s Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) batted around an idea of dropping huge condoms labeled “Made in the USA. Medium” over the USSR as a form of psychological subversion. It is possible there is some truth to this legend; the OPC crew was largely a group of young men known for their practical jokes and outlandish schemes involving plans to drop materials over the Soviet Union via balloon. At one point, the CIA director threatened to close the entire division if one more balloon proposal crossed his desk. What effect inspiring penis envy among the Soviets would have had on the simmering tensions of the Cold War can now only be left to speculation.