Hélène Roger, the advocacy director of the Sidaction association, is getting impatient. “Emotional, relational and sexual life education courses (EVARS) must be quickly implemented. It is a system that makes it possible to reach all young people,” she defends a few days after the publication of worrying data by Santé Publique France. In 2023, more than 900 young people aged 15 to 24 discovered their HIV status, which corresponds to an increase of 41% compared to 2014. Over the same period, the number of discoveries fell by 15% among 25-49 year olds.
This increase is partly explained by the massive growth in the number of screenings. Since January 1, 2022, anyone can carry out free HIV serology, without a prescription and without an appointment in all French medical biology laboratories. Mechanically, this operation called “HIV Test” led to a sharp increase in the number of tests carried out, particularly among young people. “But this is not enough to explain the increase in positive serologies among young people,” according to Hélène Roger, who is alarmed by certain behaviors favoring contamination with HIV and sexually transmitted infections in general. An Odoxa survey carried out for its association reveals, for example, that a quarter of young men aged 16 to 34 think that a woman positive for HIV or another STI has too many sexual partners and 43% think that a woman who has multiple partners “does not respect herself”. “In social relationships, this type of prejudice discourages women from getting tested, for fear of a positive diagnosis,” says the specialist. And at the same time, risk-taking is accelerating.
This same survey, unveiled on the occasion of the 37th World HIV/AIDS Day which takes place on December 1, as every year, reveals a greater circulation of masculinist stereotypes which, for example, discourage the wearing of condoms. One in six young men aged 16 to 34 believe that condoms are a sign of weakness and one in three say that women must respect the fact of not wearing a condom during sexual intercourse. These proportions are significantly lower among their elders: only 3% of those surveyed in their fifties associate condoms with an image of weakness.
16-34 year olds have a more negative image of condoms than their elders.
© / Mathias Penguilly / L’Express
Finally, 16% of 16-34 year olds believe that it is legitimate for a man to be able to remove his condom without warning his partner, if it was imposed on him when he did not want to. This practice, called “stealthing” in English, is regularly considered sexual assault and is the subject of criminalization in several European countries such as Spain and the Netherlands. In other countries such as the United Kingdom or Germany, no legal provision has yet been incorporated into the law, but several men have been convicted for such practices.
Speech war
The rise of these perceptions and practices occurs in a context where masculinist discourses are finding growing resonance among young people – and particularly young men. A quarter of men aged 16 to 34 surveyed by Odoxa explain that the speeches of certain influencers like Papacito, Thaïs d’Escufon or Alex Hitchens have led them to think differently about the use of condoms in their sexual relationships. Across the entire sample, this proportion is only 11%. “A third of young men consult masculinist content and one in five people on a regular basis,” underlines Hélène Roger of Sidaction, “this is no longer a marginal phenomenon.”
Since the start of the 2025 school year, education in emotional life, relationships and sexuality (EVARS) has been included in the school program for middle and high school students, in particular to alert people to risky behavior from a sexual health point of view. Three annual sessions, adapted to the age of the students, must now be provided each year.
