Product Description

This book demonstates the extent to which establis hed ideas about the virus, the immune system, the HIV test and the epidemiology of the disease rely upon unexamined, conservative assumptions about sexual identity and sexual difference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1276441 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
""AIDS and the Body Politic traces the fascinating yet disturbing shape of how culturally desirable is the clean, self-identical and sharply bounded (male) body, protected against infection, and how culturally horrifying are open, uncontrolled (female and gay male) bodies, prone to collecting and proliferating infection. This work is an important and fresh analysis of how cultural material informs biomedical and epidemiological models and measures.."
-"Emily Martin

From the Back Cover
Catherine Waldby's informative study draws on feminist theory, cultural studies, the philosophy of science and gay and lesbian studies to problematise the factual scientific discourse about AIDS and interpret it as a political discourse. Waldby argues that much AIDS discourse relies on an implicit and unconscious equation between sexual health and heterosexual masculinity. In this equation between women, bisexual and gay men are the targets of preventative programmes, while heterosexual men tend to remain unaddressed by such programmes.