Siegel Karolynn, Meunier Étienne, Lekas Helen-Maria
1 Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, New York.
2 Nathan Kline Institute for Mental Health Research, Orangeburg, New York.
AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2017 Jul;31(7):315-328. doi: 10.1089/apc.2017.0029. Epub 2017 Jun 7.
For about 30 years, soon after the onset of the AIDS epidemic, sexual-health messaging has emphasized personal responsibility for using condoms to protect from acquiring or transmitting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. Those who did not use condoms during casual sexual encounters may therefore feel compelled to offer to others aware of their behavior what sociologists have called "accounts," an impression-management strategy to avoid unfavorable judgment. We analyzed accounts-excuses and justifications-from qualitative interviews with 150 adults who had unprotected sex in the past 3 months with at least two different partners met online (ages 18-50, mean: 33.7, equally divided among black, Hispanic, and white men and women, over half were college educated and the median yearly household income range was $50-$75,000). Many participants made excuses that aimed to defer responsibility for unprotected sex: they claimed that consistently practicing safer sex was impossible, that they got carried away by sexual passion, that they were inebriated, that they were influenced by emotional or psychological problems, or they put fault on their partners. Participants also provided justifications, claiming that unsafe sex had been acceptable because the risks taken were likely minimal or negotiated with their partner. Understanding the accounts heterosexual adults offer to excuse and justify condomless sex with partners met online can be helpful in developing prevention messages that debunk these explanations for their behavior.
在艾滋病流行开始后不久的大约30年里，性健康宣传一直强调个人有责任使用避孕套来预防感染或传播艾滋病毒或其他性传播感染。因此，那些在随意性行为中不使用避孕套的人可能会觉得有必要向知晓他们行为的人提供社会学家所称的“说法”，这是一种印象管理策略，以避免受到不利评判。我们分析了对150名成年人进行定性访谈得到的“说法”——借口和理由，这些成年人在过去3个月里与至少两名在网上认识的不同伴侣发生了无保护性行为（年龄在18至50岁之间，平均年龄为33.7岁，黑、西班牙裔和白人男性与女性人数均等，超过一半拥有大学学历，家庭年收入中位数在5万至7.5万美元之间）。许多参与者找借口，试图推卸无保护性行为的责任：他们声称始终坚持更安全性行为是不可能的，他们被性激情冲昏了头脑，他们喝醉了，他们受到情绪或心理问题的影响，或者他们将过错归咎于伴侣。参与者还给出了理由，声称不安全的性行为是可以接受的，因为所冒的风险可能很小，或者是与伴侣协商过的。了解异性恋成年人用来为与在网上认识的伴侣进行无保护性行为找借口和辩解的“说法”，有助于制定破除这些行为解释的预防信息。
