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AIDS and women in Brazil: The emerging problem
Abstract
This paper compares and problematizes the public discourse on AIDS and sexuality with the actual private discourse of low-income urban women in Brazil. Women's perspectives on sexuality are explored by examining what they say about anal sex, virginity, and fidelity and are seen as approximating culturally scripted ideals for sexual behavior. AIDS discourses that are being proposed by the Brazilian government, Brazilian AIDS activist groups and the women's movement are examined in light of these perspectives. Condom literacy, a central component to the Brazilian AIDS activist campaign, is problematized within the context of low-income women's lives.
... Researchers have discussed the impact of AIDS in homosexual lives and lifestyles (Silva, ibid;Terto Jr, 1996Parker and Terto Jr., 1998). A large range of studies have investigated how Brazilian heterosexual women are affected by AIDS, specially the experiences of working class women (Guimaraes, 1994(Guimaraes, , 1996(Guimaraes, , 1998Goldstein, 1994;Parker and Galvao, 1996;Knauth, 1996Knauth, , 1998aKnauth, , 1998bMartin, 1997). There are studies on intravenous drug users (Fernandez, 1994(Fernandez, , 1997. ...
... Anthropologists have noticed (Guimaraes, 1994(Guimaraes, , 1996(Guimaraes, , 1996cGoldstein, 1994) that, behind this earlier ideological understanding of the impact of AIDS on women, some popular conceptions about female sexuality were assumed. Guimaraes (1994) points out the importance of addressing the issues related to the private domain of women's sexuality instead of an exclusive (and prejudicial) interest in the sexual practices of "promiscuous women". ...
... Notably, as authors, such as Guimaraes (1996b) and Goldstein (1994), have pointed out (1994:921), women's perspectives can not fit in very easily in Parker's definition of a "Brazilian sexual culture". ...
This dissertation examines specific issues surrounding the experience of living with HIV and AIDS in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It focuses on the process of identity formation in relation to local forms of social organization within the context of the AIDS epidemic since the mid-1980s. These processes are closely associated with factors, such as sexuality, gender and illness. Based on a historical and ethnographic perspective, fieldwork was mostly carried out in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. To investigate the social world of AIDS, I visited AIDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs), gay activist groups, and clinical settings involved with AIDS treatments and care. As a case-study, I conducted ethnographic research in the Grupo Pela Vidda-Rio, the leading AIDS NGO in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The thesis is composed of nine chapters. The first and second chapters give an introduction to the main research topics, aims, fieldwork, selected methodologies and a critical overview of the studies on sexuality, identity and AIDS in Brazil. Chapter three discusses the discursive practices and the cultural representations produced by the Brazilian news media, which contributed to popularize dominant cultural conceptions of the epidemic, particularly a stigmatizing identity: the "aidetico". Chapter four articulates the idea of the AIDS epidemic as a health crisis, which emerged alongside other moral and social problems. I focus on the role of Brazilian AIDS public policy and health structures in the social reproduction and incorporation of sexual and clinical identities, namely, "seropositive" and "seronegative" identities. Chapter five deals with the different forms of civil mobilization and social organization that constitute the social world of AIDS in Rio de Janeiro in relation to national and global levels. The local influence of global discourses on "solidarity" is analysed in its links to particular models of identity construction, especially discourses on the cultural meanings of "people living with HIV and AIDS". Chapter six is an ethnographic case-study of the Grupo Pela Vidda-Rio, its activities, composition, ideological aims and historical changes. As a final step to understand the broad determinacy of processes of identity formation, chapters seven and eight give an ethnographic analysis of how a range of identities (gender, sexual, and clinical ones) can be socially and culturally performed in the specific social setting of Grupo Pela Vidda. The complex logic of sociability and the power of social hierarchies in the definition and incorporation of identities are largely discussed in these two chapters. My main contribution, therefore, is to give a better understanding of the constitutive tension between broad processes and specific contexts of identity formation. This tension is fueled by different organizational and ideological models at work within the particular social world of AIDS in Rio de Janeiro.
... Some critics argued that female sterilisation in Brazil derives from and sustains inequality in heterosexual relationships ( Barbosa and Villela 1995, Goldstein 1996, De Alvarenga and Schor 1998. Others argued that high rates of sterilisation represent women's agency and that it relieves the burdens associated with having sex (Citeli, et al., 1998). ...
... Most of these participants focused on their own understandings and experiences of sexual pleasure, highlighting how the artificiality and materiality of barrier methods were undesirable in this context. These findings contrast with those from earlier studies on sterilisation that emphasised women's lack of power to negotiate their sexual desires due to gender inequality in intimate relationships ( Giffin 1994, Goldstein 1996, Serruya 1996, Minella 1998). ...
The dramatic drop of the fertility rate in Brazil, from 6.2 births per woman in 1960 to 2.5 in 1996, has been attributed to women’s increasing use of sterilisation. Despite the fact that sterilisation was illegal, Brazil had the second highest rate in the world in 1996, at 40.1%. Political concerns regarding the abuse of the operation led to the legalisation of sterilisation in 1997 to provide regulation of the procedures. Subsequently, rates of reversible contraception have increased, and sterilisation rates dropped to 21.4% by 2013. Sterilisation in Brazil is thus a useful case study to examine how changing socio-legal contexts can influence experiences or understandings of this contraceptive technology.
This research is based on semi-structured interviews conducted in 2013 with 35 women from a variety of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds in Rio de Janeiro. This thesis is informed by a sociological perspective on health technologies that takes account of the social context and of lay users’ views of their experiences. Several different domains of social life that have an influence on participants’ understandings of sterilisation are thus examined, including: wider reproductive discourses, family and intimate relationships, the medical institution within which contraception is provided, and prior experiences of reversible contraceptive technologies.
The thesis demonstrates the importance of examining sterilisation as a socially-mediated practice. At the institutional level, my analysis illustrates how women navigate the shifting ambiguous socio-legal context, as well as the systemic barriers to healthcare, when accessing sterilisation. The influence of intersections of gender, race and class are highlighted in this process, and is evident in women’s experiences of family and intimate relationships. At the embodied and individual level, the significance of the design of contraceptive technologies is emphasised, as well as women’s prioritisation of their own emotional and physical wellbeing and sexual pleasure. Furthermore, the analysis highlights how reproductive discourses intersect with cultural notions of family ideals and everyday practices, to influence both decisions about and understandings of sterilisation. Overall, the thesis illustrates how sterilisation is a socially mediated practice that varies dependent on macro contexts of cultural reproductive discourses, as well as institutional, interactional and individual levels.
... Previous studies from all over the world similarly highlight the difficulties faced by abused women in negotiating sex. Married women specifically are more likely to face violence when they ask their husbands to use condoms, as it is often seen as an admission of marital infidelity (Go et al., 2003;Goldstein, 1994;Wingood andDiClemente, 1997 andPallikadavath andStones, 2003). Prior studies have also indicated that male partner's' controlling behaviour is associated with violence (Krantz, and Vung, 2009). ...
The study primarily focuses on analyzing married women’s attitudes towards negotiating safer sex in two contexts. The first context is when a woman refuses to have sex with husband if she knows her husband has a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the second is when she does so if she knows he has sex with other women. The study examined predictors of Indian women’s attitude towards negotiating safer-sex using data on 92,306 ever married women from the state module of the 2015-16, National Family Health Survey 4. Descriptive and multilevel logistic regression was used to understand the interplay between the attitude towards negotiation of safer sexual relationships with husband and the selected background characteristics with a primary focus on controlling behaviour and power relations. About 17% of women did not believe in negotiating safer sexual relations with the husband. An approximately equal proportion of ever-married women (79% each) believed in doing so under the two specific conditions, that is, if they knew the husband had an STD and they knew he had sex with other women. Multilevel regression analysis showed that women who had household decision-making power [AOR=0.71; p<0.01] and those whose husbands displayed low control towards them [AOR=0.91; p<0.05] were more likely to believe in negotiating safer-sex. Our findings suggest that women who have controlling partners or those who live under the umbrella of the husband’s authority lack the power to negotiate for safer sex. Interventions promoting sexual well-being must deal with negative male perceptions and expectations that perpetuate unhealthy sexual habits and marriage ties.
... While sex, and sexual transgression provide an escape route from the daily grind of poverty in urban Brazil, the 'ideology of the erotic' (1991:165) appears to be written overly large on all aspects of daily life in Parker's account. Goldstein's (1994) study of women and HIV/AIDS in Brazil argues that Daniel & Parker's analysis is a uniquely male oriented understanding of sexual culture. Daniel & Parker do not explain how women, who are not invited to 'break the rules' but rather to set the boundaries of acceptable/unacceptable behaviour, participate in this sexual economy. ...
HIV/AIDS has highlighted the lack of understanding we have of cultural variations in ideas about sexual practice and identity. Whilst the South has been hit hard by the epidemic, the Mexican case is unique, and remains under-researched. Local ideas about sex, sexuality and gender, in conjunction with understandings and approaches to health affect perceptions of HIV and the risk of infection. However, health care policy evolves now in the context of an international medical community, and this thesis examines the problems these issues present. Anthropological research into transmission of HIV in Latin America has focussed almost exclusively on men, and in particular men who have sex with men. Implying that a bounded homosexual community exists, this does not account for the rapid spread of the virus in the heterosexual community. The problem of HIV/AIDS in Mexico is examined here as a shared one, and ethnographic data was gathered through informal interviewing with men and women in a self-help group, sex-workers, and low and middle income women. Public health policy normally side-steps the moral universe in the delivery of education/prevention programmes. Mexico has imported an international AIDS discourse produced in Anglo-Saxon cultures that privileges safe sex, monogamy and an idea of 'homosexual identity'. My argument that this policy cannot be applied indiscriminately iii the non-Anglo setting is borne out by the ideas people express about their sexual lives and practices. Recent theoretical work in the anthropology of gender theory has been used to explore the contradictions inherent in discussions of sexual identity, especially the differences that exist between ideological systems and practice, and some suggestions are also made for application of the research findings.
... In this scenario we are faced with a case of rape. 25,26 As above results reflect, less than 5 year old victims of rape appear to be predominantly infants. This is in line with available evidence which is consistent with most pathetic stories stemming from rape of minors and infants sometimes by caregivers and biologic parents. ...
Background:
Rape remains a controversial issue with a few victims reporting experience because of the myriad of societal perception, prolonged steps in pursuing a case to logical conclusion of securing conviction, as well as psychological and physical residuals of the experience. Data in Nigeria is therefore hard to come by as it is diminished and often not available.
Objectives:
To assess the pattern and trend of rape cases in a State in Nigeria.
Methods:
A descriptive and retrospective study where data records on socio-demographics and case specifics was collected on victims of sexual assault that reported to DFID/ PATHS 2 supported Tamar Sexual Assault Centre between 2014 and 2016 after which it was analysed and presented in bar charts.
Result:
The yearly prevalence varied for the different age groups studied with the highest prevalence noted for 13 years and above (175,200,255) over the 3 years of 2014, 2015 and 2016 studied. The reported cases also improved over the studied years with rates of 0.47, 0.96 and 0.5 respectively.
Conclusion:
The yearly comparison and baseline data show that the centre's establishment caused an improvement in rape case reporting and follow-up.
... It was a sad bloodbath; the next day I couldn't even walk. (Goldstein 1994) ...
Tem como objetivos definir, problematizar e explorar o potencial da abordagem antropológica às questões relativas a saúde e doença. Ainda que todos os artigos tentem esclarecer e delimitar o campo de atuação da antropologia médica, não apresentam a mesma visão ao tratar das características internas e das fronteiras deste saber. Em alguns, a busca é por desconstruir dicotomias correntes, rumo aos fundamentos metateóricos; em outros, nota-se uma visão complexa do campo a partir da discussão de trabalhos empíricos, etnográficos.
On the night of July 21, 1994, Cristina Loira, a travesti1 sex worker, was murdered by a john on the streets of Porto Alegre’s main travesti prostitution zone. That same night, Heidi, another travesti who witnessed the killing, reported the crime and the identity of the killer to the police. As is often the case when travestis are killed in Brazil, the police did not conduct a thorough investigation, and no one was arrested or tried for the murder. Given this police inaction, and the fact that Cris was but one of a number of travestis who had been murdered in the past 12 months, a group of travestis based out of the Support Group for AIDS Prevention (GAPA)2 decided it was time to take the issue of violence against travestis to the people of Porto Alegre. Over the next few weeks, several GAPA staff people, in conjunction with the travesti groups, organized a coalition who staged a protest march against violence of more than 80 people through downtown Porto Alegre on August 23, 1994.
Objectives: This article provides an overview of a growing body of international research focusing on the structural and environmental factors that shape the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and create barriers and facilitators in relation to HIV-prevention programs. Overview of structural-factors literature: Most of the research on structural and environmental factors can be grouped into a small number of analytically distinct but interconnected categories: economic (under)development and poverty; mobility, including migration, seasonal work, and social disruption due to war and political instability; and gender inequalities. An additional focus in research on structural and environmental factors has been on the effects of particular governmental and intergovernmental policies in increasing or diminishing HIV vulnerability and transmission. Interventions: A smaller subset of the research on structural factors describes and/or evaluates specific interventions in detail. Approaches that have received significant attention include targeted interventions developed for heterosexual women, female commercial sex workers, male truck drivers, and men who have sex with men. Conclusions: The structural and environmental factors literature offers important insights and reveals a number of productive intervention strategies that might be explored in both resource-rich and -poor settings. However, new methodologies are required to document and evaluate the effects of the structural interventions, which by their very nature involve large-scale elements that cannot be easily controlled by experimental or quasi-experimental research designs. Innovative, interdisciplinary approaches are needed that can move beyond the limited successes of traditional behavioral interventions and explicitly attempt to achieve broader social and structural change. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
É mostrado que a esterilização feminina tem aumentado extraordinariamente nos últimos anos no Brasil. Em alguns Estados do Nordeste, este é o meio anticoncepcional mais comumente usado, sendo os hospitais estaduais e municipais e o Instituto Nacional de Assistência Médica e Previdência Social (INAMPS) os principais fornecedores. Entretanto, em que pese haver numerosos abusos praticados, de esterilizações realizadas sem o consentimento consciente da mulher, é provável que grande parte das esterilizações tenha sido solicitada pelas clientes, mas dentro de um conjunto de alternativas que elas individualmente são impotentes para alterar. Estas alternativas decorrem de determinantes sociais: posição desvantajosa da mulher na família e no mercado de trabalho, a cultura patriarcal, a política de mercantilização da saúde e a política demográfica.
Originally published in the early 1990s, Bodies, Pleasures, and Passions quickly became a classic ethnographic study of the social, cultural and historical construction of sexuality and sexual diversity. Drawing on extensive field research and interviews, together with the analysis of historical and literary texts, anthropologist Richard Parker mapped out the multiple cultural systems that structure gender, sexuality, and erotic practices in Brazil, and helped to open up a new wave of social science research on sexuality. Using ethnographic methods focusing on sexual meanings as an alternative to traditional surveys of sexual behavior, Parker argues that sexual life can only be fully understood through an analysis of the cultural logics that shape experience. Drawing on the tradition of interpretive anthropology, he focuses on the diverse sexual scripts that have been articulated in Brazilian culture and examines the often contradictory ways in which these scripts shape the sexual experience of different individuals. He highlights the sexual socialization of children and young people, and the changing sexual realities of adults living in a rapidly changing world. He underlines the ways in which complex cultural forms such as carnaval can be understood as stories that Brazilians tell themselves about themselves and about the meaning of sexuality in contemporary Brazilian life. The 1991 book was the winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize from the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists.
This article contributes to the cross-cultural understanding of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) through a detailed examination of the AIDS epidemic in contemporary Brazil. Since 1983, when the first verified case was reported there, the number of AIDS victims has grown rapidly enough to place Brazil high on the list of countries with the largest number of confirmed cases. Yet the pace of this epidemic has received relatively little attention from either the international community or the Brazilian government. In addition, the model used for understanding the transmission of the disease has been developed in the rather different social and cultural contexts of Western Europe and the United States. This article draws on the author's research on Brazilian sexual culture and suggests its relevance for understanding the transmission of AIDS in Brazil. It calls for a more active and culturally appropriate response to the disease in Brazil, as well as for an increasingly sophisticated understanding of cultural differences that influence the AIDS epidemic internationally.
Female sterilization has increased extraordinarily in the last few years in Brazil. In some Northeastern States, it is already the most common contraceptive method used, as it is provided by state and municipal hospitals and National Institute of Medical and Social Welfare. In spite of a large number of abuses, when women are sterilized without their informed consent, it is likely that a large proportion of sterilizations are actively sought by clients. However, this happens in response to a series of options which the women, as individuals, are powerless to change. These options arise from social determinative factors such as: the disavantages of the woman's position in the family and in the labor market, the patriarchal culture, commoditization of health and demographic policies.
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