Gender & Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa.
J Int AIDS Soc. 2010 Feb 9;13:6. doi: 10.1186/1758-2652-13-6.
Research shows that gender power inequity in relationships and intimate partner violence places women at enhanced risk of HIV infection. Men who have been violent towards their partners are more likely to have HIV. Men's behaviours show a clustering of violent and risky sexual practices, suggesting important connections. This paper draws on Raewyn Connell's notion of hegemonic masculinity and reflections on emphasized femininities to argue that these sexual, and male violent, practices are rooted in and flow from cultural ideals of gender identities. The latter enables us to understand why men and women behave as they do, and the emotional and material context within which sexual behaviours are enacted.In South Africa, while gender identities show diversity, the dominant ideal of black African manhood emphasizes toughness, strength and expression of prodigious sexual success. It is a masculinity women desire; yet it is sexually risky and a barrier to men engaging with HIV treatment. Hegemonically masculine men are expected to be in control of women, and violence may be used to establish this control. Instead of resisting this, the dominant ideal of femininity embraces compliance and tolerance of violent and hurtful behaviour, including infidelity.The women partners of hegemonically masculine men are at risk of HIV because they lack control of the circumstances of sex during particularly risky encounters. They often present their acquiescence to their partners' behaviour as a trade off made to secure social or material rewards, for this ideal of femininity is upheld, not by violence per se, by a cultural system of sanctions and rewards. Thus, men and women who adopt these gender identities are following ideals with deep roots in social and cultural processes, and thus, they are models of behaviour that may be hard for individuals to critique and in which to exercise choice. Women who are materially and emotionally vulnerable are least able to risk experiencing sanctions or foregoing these rewards and thus are most vulnerable to their men folk.We argue that the goals of HIV prevention and optimizing of care can best be achieved through change in gender identities, rather than through a focus on individual sexual behaviours.
研究表明，两性权力不平等的关系和亲密伴侣暴力使妇女面临更大的艾滋病毒感染风险。对伴侣施暴的男性更有可能感染艾滋病毒。男性的行为表现出暴力和危险性行为的集中趋势，这表明两者之间存在重要联系。本文借鉴了 Raewyn Connell 的霸权男性气质概念和对强调女性气质的思考，认为这些性和男性暴力行为源于并源自性别认同的文化理想。后者使我们能够理解男性和女性为什么会这样做，以及性行为发生的情感和物质背景。在南非，虽然性别认同表现出多样性，但黑非洲男性气概的主导理想强调坚韧、力量和卓越性成功的表达。这是女性所渴望的男性气质；然而，这种男性气质具有性风险，并且是男性参与艾滋病毒治疗的障碍。霸权男性气概的男性应该控制女性，并且可能会使用暴力来建立这种控制。相反，占主导地位的女性气质理想接受顺从和容忍暴力和伤害行为，包括不忠。霸权男性气概的男性的女性伴侣面临艾滋病毒感染的风险，因为她们缺乏对特别危险的性行为的情况的控制。她们经常将对伴侣行为的默许视为获得社会或物质回报的一种权衡，因为这种女性气质理想是由一种文化制裁和奖励制度来维护的，而不是通过暴力本身。因此，采用这些性别认同的男性和女性遵循的理想深深植根于社会和文化过程中，因此，他们是行为模式的典范，个人可能难以对其进行批评，也难以在其中做出选择。在物质和情感上脆弱的女性最不可能冒险受到制裁或放弃这些回报，因此她们最容易受到男性的伤害。我们认为，艾滋病毒预防和优化护理的目标最好通过改变性别认同来实现，而不是通过关注个人性行为来实现。
