EnGendering AIDS: Deconstructing Sex, Text and Epidemic

In an analysis of gender and AIDS, the author assesses safer sex health promotion and health education discourse and considers their unintended consequences for the cultural construction of gender and sexuality. Taking a queer/feminist constructionist position, she links issues of power, gender and sexuality and nationalism in an attempt to offer a theoretical foundation for an effective and radical HIV/AIDS health promotion strategy. This text draws on safer sex materials from the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Scandinavia and sets current practice against the historical context of VD/STD education, dissecting the role played by STDs in the cultural construction of gender. Wilton debates the meanings that erotic minorities read into bodies and desires, and how these have been transformed by AIDS, and suggests a model of pornography that disengages the sexually explicit and/or erotically arousing from gendered power relations. The study suggests an approach to the development of effective safer sex promotional strategies based on thinking in health promotion and on the insights of both radical feminism and Queer Theory.

Table of Contents:
Introduction A Note on Terminology Sex, Texts, Power A Sexed and Gendered Desire Obstacles to Sexual Safety Look after Yourself HIV/AIDS Health Education and Promotion Queen of the Fountain of Love Gender, Disease and Death Whatever Turns You On Safer Sex Promotion Nowhere Man Representation, Resistance and Community Action = Life

About the Author :
Tamsin Wilton is Senior Lecturer in Health and Policy Studies at the University of the West of England. Her recent publications include Finger-Licking Good: The Ins and Outs of Lesbian Sex (1996), and Lesbian Studies: Setting an Agenda (1995).

Review :
`This is a book which will be of use to all people engaged in AIDS work, at whatever level. Health promotion in the context of safer sex is a monumental task. Gender is one of the most significant factors contributing to continued epidemic growth. To make the healthier choice the easier choice demands no less than the eradication of the institution of male supremacy. Wilton′s book goes a long way in ullustrating how and why this is simply an imperative′ - Psychology in Society `It is a valuable source book for further material and in many respects provides a model for work where high theory can serve the need for health professionals to understand how the production and reproduction of health promotion materials and practices may be read′ - Medical Sociology News `Written as an analysis of HIV/AIDS and gender, Tamsin Wilton makes a thought provoking examination of their reference to safer sex health promotion and health education discourse. As the basis for her examination she takes a queer/feminist constructionist position and uses this viewpoint to consider issues of power, gender, sexuality and nationalism and their relationship with effective and radical HIV/AIDS health promotion strategy. The scope of her work draws on experience from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Scandinavia and the USA.′ Journal of Advanced Nursing ′An original and stimulating analysis on gender and AIDS....This is an important book.′ Business Standard ′The author asses safer sex health promotion and health education discourse and considers their unintended consequences for the cultural construction of gender and sexuality. She links the issues of power, gender, sexuality and nationalism in an attempt to offer a sound theoretical foundation for an effective and radical HIV/AIDS health promotion strategy.′ CAB ABSTRACTS