Gupta G R, Weiss E
Women and AIDS Program, International Center for Research on Women, Washington, DC 20036.
Cult Med Psychiatry. 1993 Dec;17(4):399-12. doi: 10.1007/BF01379307.
Preliminary findings from the Women and AIDS program, a research grants program of the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, D.C. that supports 17 studies in developing countries worldwide, provide a glimpse into the complex interaction between women's social and economic status and risk of HIV infection. In many settings, the cultural norms that demand sexual fidelity and docile and acquiescent sexual behavior among women permit--and sometimes even encourage--early sexual experimentation, multiple partnerships, and aggressive and dominating sexual behavior among men. Drawing upon the finding from the program, the paper analyzes how such cultural norms, together with women's social and economic dependency, can limit a woman's ability to negotiate safer sex with her partner; restrict her access to information and knowledge about her body; force her to sometimes barter sex for survival; increase her vulnerability to physical violence in sexual interaction; and compromise her self-esteem. The findings highlight the limitations of the current HIV/AIDS prevention strategy for reducing women's risk of HIV, and underline the urgency for an approach to prevention that is grounded in the realities of women's lives and sexual experiences--an approach that recognizes the relationship between the dynamics of gender relations, sexual behavior, and HIV risk.
“妇女与艾滋病”项目是位于华盛顿特区的国际妇女研究中心的一个研究资助项目，该项目在全球范围内的发展中国家资助了17项研究。其初步研究结果让我们得以一窥妇女的社会经济地位与感染艾滋病毒风险之间的复杂相互作用。在许多情况下，要求女性保持性忠诚以及温顺、顺从性行为的文化规范，使得男性可以进行早期性尝试、拥有多个性伴侣以及采取主动和主导的性行为，有时甚至起到鼓励作用。基于该项目的研究结果，本文分析了这些文化规范以及妇女在社会和经济上的依附性，是如何限制女性与伴侣协商安全性行为的能力；限制她们获取有关自身身体的信息和知识；迫使她们有时为了生存而以性交易；增加她们在性互动中遭受身体暴力的脆弱性；以及损害她们的自尊。研究结果凸显了当前艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防策略在降低女性感染艾滋病毒风险方面的局限性，并强调了采取一种基于女性生活现实和性经历的预防方法的紧迫性——这种方法认识到性别关系动态、性行为和艾滋病毒风险之间的关系。
