Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures in Volume IV
- Contributors to Volume IV
- Editors’ Preface to the Series
- 1 Sexuality and Capitalism
- 2 Colonialism and Modern Sexuality
- 3 Gender, Migration, and Sexuality in the Modern World
- 4 ‘Pornography’, ‘Obscenity’, and the Suppression of Libertine Literature
- 5 Sexuality and the Print Media in the Modern World
- 6 Eugenics, Public Health, and Modern Sexuality
- 7 Sexuality and Consumerism in the Modern World: The Business of Pleasure
- 8 Sex Education in the Modern World
- 9 Birth Control and Reproductive Rights in the Modern World
- 10 The Impact of the World Wars on Modern Sexuality
- 11 Sexualities and Dictatorships of the Twentieth Century
- 12 Sexuality in Post-war Liberal Democracies
- 13 The Sexual Revolution
- 14 Sex Tourism: Fluid Borders of Meanings and Practices
- 15 The History of AIDS since 1981: Medicine, Politics, and Societies in a Pandemic
- 16 Sex Trafficking in the Modern World
- 17 Sex, Law, and Domestic Violence against Women in the Modern World
- 18 Sexuality under Attack Now
- Index
- Contents to Volumes I, II, and III
- References
15 - The History of AIDS since 1981: Medicine, Politics, and Societies in a Pandemic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2024
Book contents
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures in Volume IV
- Contributors to Volume IV
- Editors’ Preface to the Series
- 1 Sexuality and Capitalism
- 2 Colonialism and Modern Sexuality
- 3 Gender, Migration, and Sexuality in the Modern World
- 4 ‘Pornography’, ‘Obscenity’, and the Suppression of Libertine Literature
- 5 Sexuality and the Print Media in the Modern World
- 6 Eugenics, Public Health, and Modern Sexuality
- 7 Sexuality and Consumerism in the Modern World: The Business of Pleasure
- 8 Sex Education in the Modern World
- 9 Birth Control and Reproductive Rights in the Modern World
- 10 The Impact of the World Wars on Modern Sexuality
- 11 Sexualities and Dictatorships of the Twentieth Century
- 12 Sexuality in Post-war Liberal Democracies
- 13 The Sexual Revolution
- 14 Sex Tourism: Fluid Borders of Meanings and Practices
- 15 The History of AIDS since 1981: Medicine, Politics, and Societies in a Pandemic
- 16 Sex Trafficking in the Modern World
- 17 Sex, Law, and Domestic Violence against Women in the Modern World
- 18 Sexuality under Attack Now
- Index
- Contents to Volumes I, II, and III
- References
Summary
Though sexually transmitted diseases have existed for thousands of years, from the late twentieth century AIDS became an enduring pandemic, mapping onto and exacerbating pre-existing inequalities. It must be historically contextualized within the global spread of older STDs such as syphilis and gonorrhoea, as a result of colonialism and imperialism. From its earliest identification among gay and bisexual men in the United States in the 1980s, AIDS-related stigma and discrimination acted as barriers to effective HIV prevention. In Africa women”s experiences of gender oppression, including through the criminalization of sex work, rendered them susceptible to HIV infection. The racial oppression of Black people, Indigenous people, and people of colour placed them at special risk of HIV. The pandemic also occasioned fundamental, adverse social changes, including AIDS orphans. It is against this backdrop that AIDS activism emerged. Activists have campaigned for sex-positive prevention education, adequate funding, and greater political will to develop treatments. The history of AIDS is deserving of study for the way in which it conceptualizes how structural oppression and human rights violations shape sexual and reproductive health, and how gender- and sexuality-oppressed groups can challenge human rights violations and advance global health justice.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 318 - 341Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Further Reading
Barnett, Tony, and Whiteside, Ian. AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalization. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berridge, Virginia. AIDS in the UK: The Making of a Policy, 1981–1994. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biehl, João. Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandt, Allan M. No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Brier, Jennifer. Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Campbell, Catherine. Letting Them Die: Why HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes Fail. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Carter, Julian B. ‘Birds, Bees and Venereal Disease: Toward an Intellectual History of Sex Education’. Journal of the History of Sexuality 10, no. 2 (2001): 213–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Myron S., Henderson, Gail E., and Aiello, Pat. ‘Successful Eradication of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the People’s Republic of China: Implications for the 21st Century’. Journal of Infectious Diseases 174 (1996): 223–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Matt. “‘Archives of Feeling”: The AIDS Crisis in Britain 1987’. History Workshop Journal 83, no. 1 (2017): 51–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Steven. Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Gevisser, Mark. ‘A Different Fight for Freedom: A History of South African Lesbian and Gay Organisation from the 1950s to the 1990s’. In Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa, ed. Gevisser, Mark and Cameron, Edwin, 14–88. London: Routledge, 1995.Google Scholar
Hodes, Rebecca. Broadcasting the Pandemic: A History of HIV on South African Television. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council, 2014.Google Scholar
Hunter, Mark. Love in the Time of AIDS: Inequality, Gender, and Rights in South Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Iliffe, John. The African AIDS Epidemic: A History. Athens, OH: University of Ohio Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Levine, Philippa. Prostitution, Race, and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire. London: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
Lewis, Milton. Thorns on the Rose: The History of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Australia in International Perspective. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1998.Google Scholar
Lewis, Milton, Bamber, Scott, and Waugh, Michael, eds. Sex, Disease, and Society: A Comparative History of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.Google Scholar
McKay, Richard A. Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nunn, Amy. The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil. New York: Springer, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parascandola, John. Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008.Google Scholar
Quétel, Claude. The History of Syphilis. Trans. Judith Braddock. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Reddy, Vasu, Sandfort, Theo, and Rispel, Laetitia, eds. From Social Silence to Social Science: Same-Sex Sexuality, HIV/AIDS and Gender in Africa. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council, 2009.Google Scholar
Setel, Philip W., Lewis, Milton, and Lyons, Maryinez, eds. Histories of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999.Google Scholar
Siena, Kevin, ed. Sins of the Flesh: Responding to Sexual Disease in Early Modern Europe. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2005.Google Scholar
Susser, Ida. AIDS, Sex, and Culture: Global Politics and Survival in Southern Africa. London: Wiley, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Robert J. Unimagined Community: Sex, Networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Megan. Curing Their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness. Cambridge: Polity, 1991.Google Scholar