Illegitimate communities of HIV:
how the virus went virtual and
what ‘we’ did with it.
Dr Sharif Mowlabocus
School of Media, Film & Music
University of Sussex, UK
s.j.mowlabocus@sussex.ac.uk
@ creativemess
Illegitimate communities of HIV: how the
virus went virtual and what ‘we’ did with it.
Research focus in relation to HIV:
- discourses of the virus
- identities & Identifications
- the role of mobile and digital media.
- the role that mobile and digital media might play
in harm reduction.
Today’s focus:
To explore how mobile and digital media have supported the
formation of ‘HIV communities’.
- to illustrate the virtual world of the virus - and consider how the virus
has become ‘virtual’
- to articulate the role of digital and mobile media in (re)articulation
relationships with the virus
- to illustrate the contested ground on which conceptualisations of HIV
take place.
Underpinning (evidence-based!)
assumption:
MSM have a long(er), deep(er) and (more) intimate history
of mobile and digital integration.
HIV online: a case study in virtual
community support…
- how to live with the virus
- information on treatment regimes
- handling stigma and discrimination
- connecting with others affected by HIV
The HIV community online: a new counterpublic? (c/f Fraser, 1999)
- communities that are no longer bounded
by geography
- inter-connected communities formed
around (shared) interests
- an inherently ‘queer’ approach to
community?
- a uptopian approach to community?
(c/f disembodiment thesis)
- what other (‘illegitimate’) HIV
communities exist online?
Beyond the legitimacy of HIV
HIV narratives, beliefs, practices,
communities – can be legitimate or
illegitimate
What is deemed il/legitimate often
depends on a number of factors:
-
power relations
pre-existing social tensions
prevailing education standards
moral and community standards
current cultural anxieties
Illegitimate beliefs &
narratives include:
- Only gay men get HIV
- HIV is not linked to AIDS
- HIV was created by US
doctors to kill homosexuals
/ Africans / Russians /
a.n.others
- HIV can be cured through
sex with a virgin /
homeopathy/ religion / diet
Bareback subculture – the online bareback community – can be
thought of as an ‘illegitimate’ HIV community
A (too brief and all too incomplete) history
of bareback subculture.
Circa 1997 – ‘Bareback’
begins to get used within
(U.S.) gay male subcultures
1998 – Journalist articles in
gay and mainstream press
report on ‘barebacking’.
1999 - Dr. DeAnn Gauthier and
Dr. Craig Forsyth - discuss an
emerging trend among gay men a trend that involved the
conscious rejection of condoms
during sex.
Relevant observations from
all of this:
Academic commentary includes
: Richard Tewkesbury; Michael
Scarce; Gabriel Rotello; Kane
Race; Adam Bourne; Gary
Dowsett; Eric Rofes; Barry Adam;
Christian Grov; Mark Davis; Tim
Dean; Wheldon et al.
•Barebacking is real
•Barebacking is ‘about’ HIV
•The Internet and bareback sex
cannot be decoupled.
Barebacking: the media response.
“I thought if you cared about someone, you’d
want to do your best to protect them, not put their
lives at risk – or your own.”
Why should we expect lesbians, who receive
comparatively scant support from gay men, to
continue to make the tremendous efforts many
of them have made around HIV if it appears
that we are actively courting the virus?
(Fall, 2003)
Mathew Hudson,
Editor, Boyz Magazine.
(1999).
Illegitimate communities of HIV:
how the virus went virtual and what ‘we’ did with it
ongoing
stigma
HIV
prevention
success
HIV +
health
online
bareback
community
silencing
of desires
digital
culture
condom
Fatigue
What does the online bareback community
look like?
12
My footer text
Discourses within the (online) bareback
community
1. Articulation of desires hitherto silenced.
1. Connecting discussions of these (illegitimate) desires to
broader civil rights / neo-liberal / anti-censorship /
libertarian discourse.
1. New identifications made with HIV.
1. Appropriate health and safety discourse.
Discourses within the (online) bareback
community
1. Articulation of desires hitherto silenced.
1.
Connecting discussions of these (illegitimate) desires to
broader political discourse.
1.
New identifications made with HIV.
1.
Appropriate health and safety discourse.
“When you are getting fucked
really good by a man, you
should feel the energy of his
body flowing into yours.”
“The ultimate feelings are those when
he says "I am cumming". Knowing
you are taking his sperm deep inside
your body, holding it for several hours,
feeling it as it moves around inside
you.”
14
My footer text
Discourses within the (online) bareback
community
1.
Articulation of desires hitherto silenced.
1. Connecting discussions of these (illegitimate)
desires to broader political discourse.
1.
New identifications made with HIV.
1.
Appropriate health and safety discourse.
‘it [bareback subculture] combines together notions of informed consent,
contractual interaction, free market choice, and responsibility that create a
platform for constructing unprotected sex as a ‘‘responsible’’ choice
among adult men.’
(Adams, 2005: 344)
Discourses within the (online) bareback
community
1.
Articulation of desires hitherto silenced.
1.
Connecting discussions of these (illegitimate) desires to
broader political discourse.
1. New identifications made with HIV.
1.
Appropriate health and safety discourse.
Discourses within the (online) bareback
community
1.
Articulation of desires hitherto silenced.
1.
Connecting discussions of these (illegitimate) desires to
broader political discourse.
1.
New identifications made with HIV.
1. Appropriate health and safety discourse.
Illegitimate communities of HIV:
how the virus went virtual and what ‘we’ did with it
public health
risk?
a space to
articulate
desires
space to
articulate
anxieties
online
bareback
community
re-imagines
relationships
with the virus
ongoing
politics of
HIV
site for reframing harm
reduction
Illegitimate communities of HIV:
how the virus went virtual and what ‘we’ did with it
Why listen to an ‘illegitimate’
community?
public health
risk?
-Networked sexual culture
-Intergenerational sexual cultures
a space to
articulate
desires
space to
articulate
anxieties
online
bareback
community
-New perspectives on HIV risk
-New perspectives on health promotion
re-imagines
relationships
with the virus
Dr Sharif Mowlabocus
School of Media, Film & Music
University of Sussex, UK
s.j.mowlabocus@sussex.ac.uk
@creativemess
ongoing
politics of
HIV
site for reframing harm
reduction