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"If you got an STD in 1947, your mugshot may have ended up on a wall of shame--well, in some places of the world. Yeah, this practice completely disregarded patient privacy and was 100% sexist (you guessed it: no walls of shame for men). You have to check out a photo of a woman on one of these walls of shame that is absolutely haunting me (mystery lovers, help me solve this!), and new warnings from health experts about a rise in syphilis cases...\nPinterestFacebookCheck out this photo from 1947, which appears to be in Germany. The vintage shot shows a military guy perusing the &amp;quot;VD Hall of Fame&amp;quot; bulletin board (presumably to screen future sexual partners), where photos of women who&amp;#39;ve tested positive for venereal diseases, namely syphilis, are displayed mug-shot style. The women are holding signs with their names and addresses, which I guess was supposed to frighten men away from having sex with them.\nI have to say, I found this to be a really sad reminder of how sexist the world used to be (and still is in some respects, though we&amp;#39;ve come a long way, gals). Do you see men on this &amp;quot;VD hall of shame&amp;quot; board? No. What about patient privacy? Yeah, there wasn&amp;#39;t much of that in 1947, apparently.\nIn this model, it was entirely possible that a woman could have been raped, contracted syphilis, gone to her doctor&amp;#39;s office for treatment only to be scorned and photographed for all to see.\nA photo of one of the women on this bulletin board kind of haunted me. It was something about her eyes, or maybe it was the fact that she looked newly pregnant in her profile picture.\nPinterestFacebookHer name, as seen in the placard she held, was Irma Hornburger. I Googled her to see if I could find out if she is still living and if she&amp;#39;d be willing to talk about her story and how she ended up on this STD bulletin board from 1947, but I can&amp;#39;t seem to find any info. If she was 20-ish in the photo at the time, she&amp;#39;d be about 80 today. (If you have any leads, or know someone who knows someone who is a pro at locating people and sorting through history records email me. I&amp;#39;d love to solve this mystery!)\nAnyway, in other news: Syphilis is on the rise, say health experts--fueled by the recession (weird, right?). Check out what health officials in North Carolina are doing: Offering free $10 Wal Mart gift cards to anyone who gets an STD and HIV test.\nTell me, does the bulletin board from 1947 seem crazy to you? Aren&amp;#39;t you just dying to know the story of Irma?\nMore reading:\nShould young female immigrants be forced to get the HPV vaccine?\nFirst racism, now fatism? \nMore Ways to Get Glamour\nYou could win $50,000 just for registering for or logging in to Glamour.com!\nSign up for Glamour.com&amp;#39;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! \nAdd Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. \nFollow us on Twitter!\nPhoto: Getty"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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