Who knew that safe sex was once considered a matter of national security? According to Mother Jones, STDs took quite a toll on our troops in a pre-penicillin era. To wit, the Union Army documented 100,000 cases of gonorrhea in a two-year period during the Civil War, and the Army discharged more than 10,000 men during World War I due to STD-related health issues. Which would explain these hilariously over-the-top propaganda posters circa World War II. Perhaps we should be offended by the whole “woman as a black widow” vibe happening in a few of them, but we’re too busy laughing out loud.
