AIDS and the Body Politic: Biomedicine and Sexual Difference

ISBN-13: 9780415141307 / Angielski / Miękka / 1996 / 192 str.

Catherine Waldby; University Murdoch University

Opis

This study draws on feminist theory, cultural studies, the philosophy of science, and gay and lesbian studies to problematize 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, women, bisexual and gay men are the targets of preventative programmes, while heterosexual men tend to remain unaddressed by such programmes. Drawing upon examples of preventative policies from Australia, Britain and the USA, Waldby investigates the concept of public health and questions whose interests are represented in a healthy society. It demonstrates the extent to which established 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.

Spis treści

1 INTRODUCTION: TOTAL WAR 2 THE BIOMEDICAL IMAGINATION AND THE ANATOMICAL BODY: AIDS AND THE NATURE/ CULTURE DISTINCTION 3 THE PRIMAL SCENE OF IMMUNOLOGY 4 EPIDEMIOLOGY AND THE BODY POLITIC 5 TECHNOLOGIES OF THE BODY POLITIC: THE HIV ANTIBODY TEST 6 CONCLUSION: SEXUAL IDENTITY AND CONTAMINATION

O autorze

Catherine Waldby currently teaches in the Communications and Cultural Studies programme and the Women’s Studies programme at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia.