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Empowered or Intimidating?
The way someone perceives another's level of confidence depends on whether they are in alignment with our authenticity, as Courtney and his guest Brenda discuss in this episode about surviving HIV.
Something Positive for Positive People Podcast Episode 136
Brenda Emily (@BrendaEmily on Instagram) is an HIV survivor who did not contract it sexually, as one may assume. We discuss some of her experiences with hookups and rejection as someone navigating the dating world with HIV and cerebral palsy. We touch on HIV criminalization laws, despite the U equals U campaign being more strict than the criminalization of rape. There's some overlap in herpes and HIV stigma that we address. Overall, we can let others mistake our being empowered for intimidating. Those drawn to us will affirm our empowerment, whereas those who find us intimidating, well, are just intimidated.
COMMENT
One of the most common reasons men seek out sex therapy is due to “erectile disorder;” however, most are simply experiencing erectile disappointment, albeit not pleasant to experience either.
When it comes to publicly disclosing one's herpes diagnosis, we may seek a sense of liberation, but that comes from feeling empowered to inform ourselves in the first place.
