"We have this idea that only a certain type of people get herpes, and that's largely based on our sex education,” sex educator Emily Depasse tells Refinery29. “Most of us weren’t fortunate enough to have a comprehensive sex ed class, and even if we did have a class, they likely just brushed over STIs: this is what it is, these are the symptoms, don’t get them. You’ve probably heard or made a herpes joke, and some of our shame originates there. But a lot of our shame originates from knowing how to have conversations about safe sex." If we do learn how to have conversations about safe sex and STIs, without stigmatizing the many, many people who have them, our approach to sex as a society will get a whole lot better.