Women and AIDS: An analysis of media misrepresentations

Valerie Sacks

Social Science & Medicine, 1996, vol. 42, issue 1, 59-73

Abstract: A close reading of popular discourses on women and the AIDS epidemic reveals the ways in which such depictions produce and reiterate power-laden notions of normative sexuality. Prostitutes, one frequently depicted 'kind' of woman, are presented as indiscriminate, polluting to men and categorically different from 'normal' women. Other women depicted in AIDS discourses are almost always HIV-positive mothers or pregnant women; these women are usually only of concern insofar as they may infect their babies. The themes of self-control, self-discipline and personal responsibility may also stigmatize women. Such discourses suggest that those who have AIDS are responsible for their own illness. They also deflect attention away from the socioeconomic contexts that may make it more difficult for some to avoid infection, away from the connections between poverty, illness and disempowerment, and away from systematic inequalities that characterize U.S. society.

Keywords: women; AIDS; media; inequity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(95)00079-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:42:y:1996:i:1:p:59-73

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().