Ahh, the celebrity rumour mill. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, it keeps chugging away and sometimes it even resurfaces an old rumour to really mess with us – like this absolutely bonkers yarn about Timothée Chalamet spreading chlamydia around the NYU campus.
In 2015, Chalamet was reportedly enrolled at New York University. Just one year later, the actor allegedly dropped out, but the rumours about his time there continued to live on. According to Distractify, whispers about Chalamet having a sexually transmitted disease started swirling in 2018 and for some reason they’ve recently resurfaced on social media.
Just this week, one Twitter user posted “everybody knows somebody, who knows somebody who got chlamydia from Timothée Chalamet.” While another joked, “if you say ‘chlamydia’ three times in French, Timothée Chalamet appears.”
A few things to note here. Firstly, the rumour of Chalamet’s alleged STI has never been confirmed – so why does it continue to pop up so often?
Secondly, even if Chalamet did have chlamydia, it’s incredibly harmful to shame him for it. The negative stigma associated with sexually transmitted infections has become a huge barrier to people getting tested.
In fact, a 2017 study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found that participants were “worried about their reputation if they were seen going for a test.”
Speaking of the stigma associated with STIs, here’s everything you need to know about herpes:
As The Conversation so accurately put it, “normalising these infections by talking about them more openly with friends and family, as well as highlighting the importance of testing as part of general healthcare is a step towards overcoming these barriers.”
Here’s hoping Timothée Chalamet doesn’t have chlamydia and didn’t spread it around the NYU campus – but if he does, or if anyone does for that matter, there is nothing to be ashamed about.
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