HIV-Positive Women on Secrets, Condoms and Gendered Conversations

Abstract

The AIDS epidemic is increasingly recognized as related to gendered power relations, although little research has focused on HIV-positive women themselves. This article presents an analysis of interviews conducted with HIV-positive South African women talking about their heterosexual relationships in the context of HIV. Issues of disclosure of HIV-status, condom use and gendered conversations are explored. The analysis suggests women are constrained by, but also creatively resist, gendered power relations. It is suggested that discourses of HIV are interrelated with, and are sometimes disguised as, discourses of gender. The psychodynamic and discursive resonances of gendered conversations are explored.