Gender and Sexuality in India: Selling Sex in Chennai

ISBN-13: 9780415549158 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 176 str.

Salla Sariola

Opis

India has one of the highest numbers of HIV carriers in the world. HIV has remained associated with sex work, and large sums of money provided to fund public health interventions have come from global institutions such as UNAIDS, the World Bank and USAID. In the midst of these processes, however, sex workers and their everyday lives have been hidden behind the rhetorics of control and prevention.

This book offers a ground-breaking analysis by looking at the experiences of sex workers. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this book describes the lives of sex workers, drawing out themes of agency; notions of gender and sexuality; and women’s engagement with the HIV ‘industry’. From underneath the medicalised discourse regarding sex workers, sex work emerges as a complicated knot of poverty, desire, women’s oppression, love, cooption, and motherhood. The analysis provides a novel critique of the medicalised focus of HIV prevention. It also suggests alternative discourses on women’s sexuality, sexual behaviour and desire.

The author argues that unless the power imbalances created by patriarchal structures that affect all women are addressed, HIV prevention policies and activities will have little impact. A social analysis that extends beyond the context of HIV to gender inequalities in the wider Indian society is needed to bring out problems in HIV prevention. She puts forward several policy implications for HIV prevention by showing the need for mass awareness of HIV and condoms to reduce vulnerabilities for sex workers, and perhaps all women in India.

Spis treści

1. Introduction  2. Contextualizing Sex Work in Chennai  3. Women in Sex Work  4. What happened to 2.2 Million People?  5. Negotiating the Problems of Selling Sex  6. Alternative Discourses of Sex and Sexuality  7. Conclusion

O autorze

Salla Sariola is a research associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Durham. Currently researching international medical research collaboration, bioethics and governance of clinical trials in Sri Lanka, her research interests include anthropology of science and technology, global health, and gender and sexuality.