NASA should take condoms to space, says this Swedish sex-education group

The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education has released out a video asking NASA to send condoms complete with a guide on how they are used into space to join the likes of Voyager on its travels. Concurrent with a petition, the association released the video on September 26th, which is World Contraception Day.

While this certainly qualify as a strange request it certainly wouldn’t be the weirdest thing ever sent into space. No that honor would go to an astro-geologist’s ashes. Or a wheel of cheese. No wait, it’s Andy Warhol’s drawing of a penis.

Haven’t heard of World Contraception Day? Well, it is an annual campaign that happens every September 26. It was launched in 2007 to help bring awareness to issues around contraception and reproduction.

While the Swedes aren’t particularly well known for their humor (unless you think Ingmar Bergman films are a laugh-a-minute) the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education has a practical stand-up routine of reasons they think NASA should consider.

“Dear NASA! We know that you guys sometime send up stuff into space, so that whatever life is out there will get an idea of what goes on here on Earth,” the group says in its YouTube video. “However, from what we can tell, you forgot to inform the little green people of one super-important object: the condom! A condom might always come in handy if they decide to visit earth and find some hot earthlings.”

Back on earth, not all humanoids agree with this plan to send condoms into the furthest reaches of space. They ask why we would want these beings that we have absolutely zero knowledge of to have sex with us.

“Not to steal our water or harvest our organs. Not to prevent a catastrophe or help the Blue Jays. No, they will use their advanced propulsion systems to travel lights years for interstellar booty calls,” offers Vinay Menon, a columnist for the Toronto Star. “They will make contact to initiate carnal seduction because, hey, that’s clearly what those earthlings want or they wouldn’t keep sending us these suggestive gifts. Menon continues: “We have enough problems when humans have sex with other humans. Do we really want aliens roaming our streets and reeking of cheap cologne as they pepper us with lame pick-up lines.”

All kidding aside, contraception is an important topic. Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund says it has the power to transform societies and lives.

“Access to modern contraception saves and transforms women’s lives,” he writes in the Huffington Post. “It transforms their families and communities, too. Family planning is one of the best investments countries can make for women’s empowerment, gender equality and economic prosperity. Together, let us recommit ourselves to ensuring that every women and adolescent girl has the means and information to delay pregnancy until she is ready.”

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