The Perils of Health Promotion and the ‘Barebacking’ Backlash

Abstract

This article seeks to explore the idea that contemporary health promotion and education may actually be instrumental in creating the very conditions that encourage and perpetuate people’s ‘risky’ health practices. Using the example of gay men, unsafe sexual practices and the contemporary ‘barebacking craze’, it argues that ‘health promotion’ is increasingly being oriented to by gay men as something to ‘resist’ or ‘transgress’. The implications of this for future health promotion interventions are discussed.