I recently saw the fair-trade carbon-neutral Fair Squared condoms written up on The Pleasure Project and was curious. Is this just another product to jump on the decidedly bourg-y green bandwagon where we can feel better about ourselves just by spending money on the “correct” products? Offsetting the carbon footprint of manufacturing is a good thing, but do they take into account all of the fuel used to ship the rubber from India to the factory in Germany to the distributors in the UK?
Fair trading practices are a great step though. It makes me wonder where the rubber for the rest of latex condoms come from. Am I supporting oppressive labor practices by having safer sex? Is it truly more ethical to purchase some prophylactics over others?
After a tiny bit of research I found that these fair-trade condom companies have been popping up throughout the UK and Switzerland. French Letter Condoms even has a really nice page describing the kind of impact they have. And did you see the packaging all of these companies have? So pretty! Any ideas on why this hasn’t come to the US yet? Do you think about where your sex toys come from?
