Skip to Main Content

Modernizing Sexuality: U.S. HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

Online ISBN:
9780190610814
Print ISBN:
9780199933617
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Modernizing Sexuality: U.S. HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

Anne Esacove
Anne Esacove

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Muhlenberg College
Find on
Published online:
18 August 2016
Published in print:
31 October 2016
Online ISBN:
9780190610814
Print ISBN:
9780199933617
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Stepping outside of the normal boundaries of HIV scholarship, Modernizing Sexuality shows how Western idealizations of normative sexuality and the power of modernity come together in U.S. prevention policy in ways that actually exacerbate HIV risk, particularly for women. The book begins with an overview of the historical, epidemiological, and theoretical underpinnings of U.S. HIV-prevention policy in sub-Saharan Africa and Malawi, as well as a review of U.S. global prevention efforts, beginning with the Reagan administration. The second chapter introduces the risk narratives conveyed in official U.S. policy, the HIV-prevention industry, and everyday discourse in Malawi. Chapter Three introduces the concept of “love matches,” the idealized blueprint for prevention conveyed in U.S. policy discourse. This rarely acknowledged prescriptive narrative offers examples of “healthy,” “natural,” and otherwise sanctioned sex. Chapter Four turns to everyday discourse among Malawians to explore collective solutions to the problem of AIDS and multiple paths for prevention. This exploration results in an everyday prescriptive narrative that offers a very different blueprint for HIV prevention than that offered by U.S. prevention policy. The fifth chapter discusses the most commonly acknowledged strategies in HIV-prevention policy (e.g., knowledge, skills, and economic development), as well as the unacknowledged strategies deployed through the HIV/AIDS administrative apparatus. The book closes with an alternative narrative that reimagines risk and provides one alternative path for organizing policy efforts.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close