Department of Sociology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2020 May;252:112947. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112947. Epub 2020 Mar 20.
Public health scholars classify gay men as "men who have sex with men (MSM)" in their studies and interventions. Debates have been raised about the MSM classification for decades. However, we know little about how people who are classified as MSM perceive and respond to this classification, particularly in the authoritarian context where the biopower interacts with the repressive state power. Drawing upon Ian Hacking's dynamic nominalism theory, this study tries to fill these gaps with interviews of 40 gay men in three Chinese cities about their interactions with public health education materials. I examined their perceptions of MSM knowledge and discourses associated with the classification, as well as their identifications to the MSM subject. I found that, on the one hand, many gay men had internalized the MSM subjectivity and considered themselves essentially at high risk of HIV infection. This compliance was constructed through various biopower techniques with the support of the state's repressive power, as the Chinese state censored almost all public representations of gay men except the HIV/AIDS subject MSM. On the other hand, some of my interviewees were resistant to be part of the MSM classification. I showed how this failure is an unintended consequence of the hegemonic MSM discourse and the authoritarian regime's institutional exclusion of the gay men's community's engagement in the expertise network that develops intervention materials and strategies. At last, I proposed to move beyond the debate around the name and representational character of the MSM by moving toward a more reflexive public health.
公共卫生学者在他们的研究和干预中，将男同性恋者归类为“男男性行为者（MSM）”。几十年来，关于 MSM 分类一直存在争议。然而，我们对被归类为 MSM 的人如何看待和回应这种分类知之甚少，特别是在生物权力与压抑性国家权力相互作用的威权背景下。本研究借鉴伊恩·哈金的动态唯名论理论，通过对三个中国城市的 40 名男同性恋者的访谈，试图填补这些空白，了解他们与公共卫生教育材料的互动。我考察了他们对 MSM 知识和与分类相关的论述的看法，以及他们对 MSM 主体的认同。我发现，一方面，许多男同性恋者内化了 MSM 主体性，并认为自己本质上处于 HIV 感染的高风险之中。这种顺从是通过各种生物权力技术构建的，得到了国家镇压权力的支持，因为中国政府审查了除 HIV/AIDS 主题 MSM 之外的几乎所有关于男同性恋者的公开表述。另一方面，我的一些受访者抵制被归入 MSM 分类。我展示了这种失败是 MSM 话语霸权和威权政权制度性排斥男同性恋者社区参与制定干预材料和策略的专业知识网络的意外后果。最后，我提议通过转向更具反思性的公共卫生，超越围绕 MSM 的名称和代表性特征的争论。
