Men and women with monkeypox share their stories on social media, to fight stigma and demand more action.When Matt Ford, 30, an actor in Los Angeles, tested positive for monkeypox in June, he posted videos on Twitter and TikTok to show what it was like.Wearing a gray T-shirt and staring directly into the camera, he offered viewers close-ups of the “gross spots” all over his body, including his face, arms, belly. He also mentioned “some in my more sensitive areas, which also tend to be the most painful.”“So painful, I had to go to my doctor and get painkillers just to be able to go to sleep,” he added, before listing other symptoms: sore throat, cough, fever, chills, night sweats, swollen lymph notes.In a time when people often use social media to showcase idealized versions of themselves, displaying one’s warts — or in Mr. Ford’s case, several of the “more than 25” dark lesions on his body — was perhaps unusual.“The reason I’m speaking out,” he said in the video, “is mainly because it’s one thing to know there’s a monkeypox outbreak happening, but it’s another to know exactly what it means for someone’s body and particularly what it means if it happens to a friend or to you.”Silver Steele, 42, an adult film actor in Houston, used Twitter to share his highly graphic and personal monkeypox diary, including an intimate selfie in July that showed eight blueberry-size sores clustered under his lips.Also in July, Camille Seaton, 20, a gas station cashier in Smyrna, Ga., racked up more than 10 million views in a series of TikTok posts that detailed her bout with monkeypox. One of them started with Ms. Seaton covering her mouth with a hand as she said, “Trigger warning.” Then she revealed the lower part of her face covered with nearly a dozen sores.Viewers have responded with heart emojis and thank you’s, but reactions have not always been sympathetic. Conspiracy theories abound.Camille Seaton, a gas station attendant from Georgia, shared her monkeypox journey on TikTok.Photo courtesy of Camille SeatonPhoto courtesy of Camille SeatonJeffrey Todd, 44, a casting director in Los Angeles, went public with his monkeypox diagnosis in late July, including a video in which he removed a bandage from his face to reveal a purplish lesion. One commenter accused him of being an actor hired to shill for Pfizer.Never mind that Tpoxx, the only drug that is being prescribed to treat monkeypox, is manufactured by Siga Technologies. (The drug, which is only approved for smallpox, is being used off-label, and only sparingly.) Mr. Todd said that his video was taken down momentarily by TikTok, but was restored when he made another video addressing the haters.In certain ways, these videos recall the early days of AIDS, when women like Elizabeth Glaser and Alison Gertz joined the activist Larry Kramer and the artist Keith Haring as prominent spokespeople for those living with H.I.V.What to Know About the Monkeypox VirusCard 1 of 7What to Know About the Monkeypox VirusWhat is monkeypox?