The D.C. Department of Health pushes 'rubber'

Next month, the D.C. Department of Health will launch "The Rubber Revolution," the District's brand-new teen safe sex campaign. At this point, the Rubber Revolution looks to be a youth-oriented re-branding of the District's longstanding condom distribution program; we'll have to wait until November to see the extent of the initiative.

Now, it's been many moons since I've been considered a part of this program's target demographic. But do kids these days really use the term "rubbers" to refer to condoms?

"I think us young'uns still know what 'rubbers' are, but it's not really slang anymore," one female college student told me. "I haven't really heard 'rubbers' used," a male high school student said. "I think most people in my school don't even have nicknames for them." Two more college women said they just call the things "condoms."

Based on this dubiously scientific sample of fairly young people, I can reliably assert that kids today know what the word "rubbers" means in the context of sex, but that the D.C. Department of Health isn't exactly keying into any specialized youth sexual parlance here. "Rubbers" is kind of passe, actually.

But perhaps the D.C. Department of Health will be the one to bring it back! The campaign has already found half a dozen District youth willing to employ the phrase "Rubber Revolution" on camera (in one case, repeatedly)! Behold: