Unintended consequences: evaluating the impact of HIV and AIDS on sexuality research and policy debates

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

The HIV epidemic has had a profound impact on how we think about, talk about, and carry out research on sexuality. The epidemic opened up a wide range of approaches and methodologies within sexuality research, helping to encourage more open public discussion and debate concerning sexuality, sexual values, and sexual norms. Sexuality became one of the key contested spaces of public discourse in a previously unimaginable way, and both conservative and progressive forces have entered the debate in ways that have had a lasting impact on sexual policies in the last two decades. The current article seeks to briefly evaluate some of these important changes. It suggests that recent advances have decelerated or become more timid, while emphasizing the continued importance of seeking to address sexuality as a central issue within the context of HIV and AIDS. Although such developments may have been unintended, the ways we respond to the epidemic can have a significant impact (for better or worse) on how issues related to sexuality and sexual health are addressed.

Translated abstract

A epidemia de HIV teve um impacto profundo sobre nossos conceitos, discursos e pesquisas relacionadas à sexualidade. A epidemia abriu uma ampla gama de abordagens e metodologias na pesquisa sobre sexualidade, levando a uma abertura maior na discussão e debate sobre sexualidade, valores sexuais e normas sexuais. A sexualidade tornou-se um dos principais espaços contestados no discurso público, de maneira antes inconcebível, e forças conservadoras e progressistas entraram no debate de tal maneira que tiveram um impacto profundo sobre políticas sexuais nas duas últimas décadas. O artigo procura avaliar algumas das mudanças mais importantes nesse campo. O estudo sugere que os avanços recentes já desaceleraram ou tornaram-se mais tímidos, ao mesmo tempo em que enfatiza a importância da tentativa de tratar a sexualidade como questão central dentro do contexto HIV/AIDS. Embora esses desdobramentos tenham sido não-intencionais, nossas respostas à epidemia podem ter um impacto significativo (para bem ou para mal) sobre o enfrentamento das questões de sexualidade e saúde sexual

Related collections

Most cited references 68

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Sexual behaviour in context: a global perspective.

Kaye Wellings, Martine Collumbien, Emma Slaymaker … (2006)

Research aimed at investigating sexual behaviour and assessing interventions to improve sexual health has increased in recent decades. The resulting data, despite regional differences in quantity and quality, provide a historically unique opportunity to describe patterns of sexual behaviour and their implications for attempts to protect sexual health at the beginning of the 21st century. In this paper we present original analyses of sexual behaviour data from 59 countries for which they were available. The data show substantial diversity in sexual behaviour by region and sex. No universal trend towards earlier sexual intercourse has occurred, but the shift towards later marriage in most countries has led to an increase in premarital sex, the prevalence of which is generally higher in developed countries than in developing countries, and is higher in men than in women. Monogamy is the dominant pattern everywhere, but having had two or more sexual partners in the past year is more common in men than in women, and reported rates are higher in industrialised than in non-industrialised countries. Condom use has increased in prevalence almost everywhere, but rates remain low in many developing countries. The huge regional variation indicates mainly social and economic determinants of sexual behaviour, which have implications for intervention. Although individual behaviour change is central to improving sexual health, efforts are also needed to address the broader determinants of sexual behaviour, particularly those that relate to the social context. The evidence from behavioural interventions is that no general approach to sexual-health promotion will work everywhere and no single-component intervention will work anywhere. Comprehensive behavioural interventions are needed that take account of the social context in mounting individual-level programmes, attempt to modify social norms to support uptake and maintenance of behaviour change, and tackle the structural factors that contribute to risky sexual behaviour.