A friend of mine who works as a healthcare provider told me that sexually transmitted diseases aren’t referred to as STDs anymore, but rather STIs.  “They’re not diseases, they’re infections,” she said.

As a former English major, I am completely on board with the idea that words have power and that we should carefully modulate our use of words so as not to cause undue harm.  For example, I encounter an unbelievable amount of stupid people on a daily basis.  But I don’t call them that.  I don’t even call them cretins.  Instead I refer to them as “competence impaired.”

However, I’m not sure that STIs is a more positive term than STDs.  When I think of STIs, I think--well, to be honest, the phrase makes me think of a Satellite Defense System.  If someone told me they had an STI, I’d say “Cool!  How does the laser tracking system work?”

But when it comes right down to it, the word “infection” and the word “disease” aren’t all that different to me.  Is one really going to make someone feel better?  Plus, I mean, they’re diseases.  It’s not like a lifestyle choice where someone decides to wear speedos to a public swimming pool and therefore we need to respect his individuality.  Rather, it’s something that someone doesn’t want to get that they’d like to be cured.  That’s a disease.

I think I’d be the first to say that if I got one. I’d say “This is a disease, and I’m fully comfortable calling it an STD because that’s what it is.  However, I’d prefer it if you didn’t refer to me as a ‘victim’ of the disease. I prefer to think of myself as ‘gonorrhea capable.’”