Lees Shelley
a Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , London , UK.
Cult Health Sex. 2015;17(4):412-27. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2014.963680. Epub 2014 Oct 15.
In response to the growing HIV epidemic in Africa in the 1990s, microbicide technologies emerged from discourses of empowerment and imaginings of the sexual lives and agency of African women. This draws on an anthropological enquiry which explored narratives from Tanzanian women who participated in a microbicide clinical trial. In the context of the HIV epidemic in Tanzania, women's lives were full of uncertainty and insecurity and their sexual lives were situated in a wider discourse of urban women's sexuality linked to morality and power. Their narratives revealed that women participated in the trial to seek knowledge as well as to 'try' the gel. In relation to their concerns about sexual health, the gel was experienced as cleansing as well as enhancing sexual desire and pleasure. The idea of empowerment imbued in the gel and transported to the women through the clinical trial was meaningful to the women, and this and ideas of sexual health and pleasure suggest future and hopeful possibilities for such HIV prevention technologies. However, if made widely available the potential for enhanced inequalities and further intensified surveillance of women's sexual lives must be considered.
为应对20世纪90年代非洲日益严重的艾滋病疫情，杀微生物剂技术从赋权话语以及对非洲女性性生活和能动性的想象中应运而生。这借鉴了一项人类学调查，该调查探究了参与杀微生物剂临床试验的坦桑尼亚女性的叙述。在坦桑尼亚艾滋病疫情的背景下，女性的生活充满了不确定性和不安全感，她们的性生活处于与道德和权力相关的城市女性性行为的更广泛话语之中。她们的叙述表明，女性参与试验是为了寻求知识以及“试用”凝胶。关于她们对性健康的担忧，凝胶被体验为具有清洁作用，同时还能增强性欲和快感。凝胶中蕴含并通过临床试验传递给女性的赋权理念对她们来说是有意义的，而这以及性健康和快感的理念为这类艾滋病预防技术暗示了未来充满希望的可能性。然而，如果广泛使用，必须考虑加剧不平等以及进一步加强对女性性生活监测的可能性。
