How risk and vulnerability become socially embedded

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How risk and vulnerability become socially
embedded
insights into the resilient gapbetween awareness
and safety in HIV

• David Plummer
• Commonwealth/UNESCO Professor HIV Education
• University of the West Indies
• St Augustine
• Trinidad Tobago

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the KAP gap
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(No Transcript)
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Social embedding of riskgender rolespeer
groupseconomic powerstigma tabooreligion
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Social embedding of risk IMale gender
rolesrisky obligations
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By the age of 10 boys began to realise that
toughness, physical strength and sexual
dominance, all features of traditional
masculinity, were expected of them (Bailey,
Branche, McGarrity Stuart 1998 53)
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there is the expectation that the boys will
take risks while girls are encouraged to be
passive. (Bailey, Branche, McGarrity Stuart
1998 17)
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manhood is demonstrated by sexual prowess it
is usually measured by the number of female
sexual partners (Brown Chevannes 1998 23)
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For many men, meeting the demands of a male
identity is a far greater moral imperative than
the virtues of honesty and respect for property
and even life. (Chevannes 1999 11)
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Social embedding of risk IIMale gender roles
taboos on safety
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Boys have a real macho image to live up to. If a
boy acts in an effeminate way he will be targeted
and teased by the other students. (Respondent
quoted by Parry 2004 176)
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For males, multiple partnerships could become
also a matter of status The term one burner
applied to a faithful male in some Jamaican
communities was a phrase of derision. (Bailey,
Branche, McGarrity Stuart 1998 65 66
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Someone who did not have as many women as they
did was sick, suspected as a buller or not
the average young black male. (Crichlow 2004
206)
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Social embedding of risk IIIpeer group dynamics
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the peer groupexert influences that are not
only greater than the influence of parents, but
which contradict those nurtured within the
family. (Chevannes 1999 24)
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An adolescent boys friends exact an affinity and
a loyalty as sacred as the bond of kinship as
strong as the sentiment of religion. They
socialise one another, the older members of the
group acting as the transmitters of what passes
as knowledge, invent new values and meanings.
(Chevannes 1999 30)
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Sex then was very much in the environment of the
young boys and girls they did pick up a great
deal of information from observing their
environment and from listening to people,
particularly the age group just older than
themselves. (Bailey, Branche, McGarrity
Stuart 1998 29)
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Social embedding of risk IVeconomic power and
the economies of risk
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Money was seen as an absolutely vital resource
for a male in relationships. Much of his status
was given in the equation where money was
exchanged for respect, loyalty and sex.
(Bailey, Branche, McGarrity Stuart 1998 77)
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Social embedding of risk Vtaboo, stigma
discrimination
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Social embedding of risk VIreligion
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I found a desperate assurance in my
hyper-masculinity through religion, sports,
aggressiveness, loudness, having many intimate
women friends, and practising occupations or
trades constructed as manly in my family and
the community at large (Crichlow 2004 190)
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acknowledgements
Thanks to the participants who generously gave
their time to inform this research. also to
CARICOM, PANCAP, the Commonwealth, the University
of the West Indies and UNESCO for assisting this
research. to Joel Simpson, Vidyartha Kissoon,
Nigel Mathlin, Egbert Felix, Brian-Paul Welsh,
Robert Carr, Novlet Reid, Ian Mc Knight, Civilla
Kentish, and Kevin Farara for their superb
support. And thanks to the Society Against
Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Guyana
(SASOD), the Grenada Caribbean HIV/AIDS
Partnership (GrenCHAP), the St Vincent and the
Grenadines Caribbean HIV/AIDS Partnership
(VincyCHAP), The St Kitts and Nevis HIV/AIDS
Group, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities
Coalition (CVC), Jamaica AIDS Support for Life
(JAS), and Children and Community for Change,
Jamaica.
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thank you