Dissecting the social body: social inequality through AIDS counter-narratives

Abstract

HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories constitute a loosely grouped set of meanings that share the notion of secret collusion among allied parties. This paper traces one woman’s etiological narrative of HIV/AIDS. Such embodied experience and cultural understanding when placed against the backdrop of current thinking on the topic in the United States builds a new framework for understanding the emergence and circulation of HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories as “counter-narratives” employed by individuals and publics in the face of the AIDS pandemic. Such counter-narrative creates a rhetorical space for challenges to power through the articulation of oppositional ideas about dominant scientific knowledge. Without a critical exploration of HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories that examines their emergence and effects as a form of discourse circulating in the public domain, public health advocates will not be able to trace and respond to these narratives’ impact on HIV prevention efforts or consider their relevance for other emerging infectious diseases.