AEGiS-14IAC: Rising HIV rates in major cities: AIDS optimism, semiotic snares, and the bio-medical subject.

14th International AIDS Conference


Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

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Rising HIV rates in major cities: AIDS optimism, semiotic snares, and the bio-medical subject.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. ThOrE1498)

Adam BD
University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

ISSUES: the soco-historical context and epistemological premises that ground contemporary hypotheses trying to explain rising HIV rates in major cities of advanced, industrial societies.

DESCRIPTION: The "AIDS optimism" hypothesis and the search for "barebackers" reflect a particular cultural construction of HIV disease, consistent with fundamental discourses of western societies. The assignment of individual pathology and responsibility through the medical model, the predominance of the knowledge-attitudes-behaviour model in psychosocial medicine, and the construction of sexuality in terms of mechanics and technique, construct a subject location that "men who have sex with men" are then made to embody.

ISSUES: Attending closely to the narratives of gay and bisexual men about their own sexuality shows how consistent unsafe sex may be with predominant discourses of romantic and erotic communication, and how safe sex decision making may be caught up in semiotic snares built into scientific and public health language, autobiographical narratives, status hierarchies, body images, aging, and the search for intimacy. HIV is as much an "opportunistic" agent of these social mechanisms as it is of immune systems.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Alternative paradigms must be supported and employed which can better address the internal narratives and reasoning processes of gay men. This is a prerequisite for effective communication strategies that can engage these internal narratives.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Infections, HIV Seropositivity, Homosexuality, Male, Bisexuality, Sex Behavior, Homosexuality, Attitude, Safe Sex, Emotions, Personality, Affect, Cities, Human, MaleKWDaegis,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,hivinfections,hivseropositivity,homosexuality,male,bisexuality,sexbehavior,homosexuality,attitude,safesex,emotions,personality,affect,cities,human,male

020707
ThOrE1498

Copyright © 2002 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.