Mediated intimacies: Raw sex, Truvada, and the biopolitics of chemoprophylaxis

Abstract

This article offers a retrospective view on Unlimited Intimacy by evaluating the status of pharmaceutical mediation in the emergence and development of bareback as a sexual practice. It examines the US public health recommendation of 2014 that HIV-negative people should begin taking Truvada, an AIDS drug, for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Situating the pragmatics of PrEP in a discussion of the medicalization of gay sexuality, it argues that Truvada has biopolitical side effects that warrant critical attention. Drawing on queer theorist Beatriz Preciado, the article elaborates a concept of ‘pharmacopower’ to contextualize the development of chemoprophylaxis in the history of sexuality.