On the eve of the
twenty-first century, diverse communities are facing a
future of managing
the AIDS epidemic. Behavior modification has become the
primary method to
curb the transmission of HIV and safer sex has emerged
as a collection of
practices and ideas deployed to combat the spread of
AIDS. My
dissertation, upon which this presentation is based, investigates
the
creation and permutations of safer sex represented throughout the past
decade.
Using qualitative research methods, including grounded
theory, ethnography,
and content and discourse analyses, my work
demonstrates that there are
multiple meanings of safer sex. Data from
three groups which produce safer
sex information are analyzed: the
Centers for Disease Control's public service
announcements, sex manuals
and sex workers' narratives. My focus shifts
to center on analysis of 27
interviews conducted with people in the sex
trade. Since sex workers make
it their business to exchange sexual services
for economic compensation,
many have become sophisticated in their innovations
and expressions of
eroticism using safer sex techniques. Sex workers are
one of a group of
key knowledge producers focused on elaborating safer sexual
practices.
Their worlds are metaphoric laboratories for empirical studies
of
emergent sexual practices.
There are three objectives of this research. First, the project describes
the invention, deployment, and maintenance of safer sex as knowledge and
technology situated in everyday life. Second, it identifies some
consequences
of using safer sex for individuals' self-perception. Sex
workers experience
transformations of professional identity when
appropriating, inventing and
transmitting safer sex practices and
innovating tools for their work. Third,
the project analyzes and
criticizes some current prevention messages and
reveals underlying
ideologies which sustain these messages.
Knowledge and technology are produced through social
interaction of multiple
sets of actors. This dissertation demonstrates
how hidden or unacknowledged
communities of production, indigenous
knowledge producers, can appropriate
existing forms of knowledge and
participate in creating new practices and
technologies including
transmitting this information to others. Again, this
dissertation is an
investigation into one consequence of the international
pandemic: That
is, the production of systems of knowledge by particular
groups of
experts who claim and practice competency in their everyday lives
(Aronson 1984).
In the remaining time for my presentation, I am going
to present a sketch
of my dissertation highlighting what I feel might be
some of the contributions
of my work to scholarship about knowledge
production, identity transformation
and technology innovation and use.
In order to begin my dissertation on the
knowledge of safer sex, I started
collecting information about safer sex
from different knowledge producers.
It is important to understand the
construction of safer sex in these different
social worlds because they
have simultaneously represent particular social
relations and encourage a
specific constellations of social relations to
thrive.
If knowledge
about safer sex is not viewed as connected to ideologies and
agendas of
these actors, we can lose site of the stakes in producing the
messages
and practices. In other words, safer sex is produced in a world
that
already exists with power differentials. Certain types of safer sex
messages and knowledges supports these power arrangements, certain
messages
attempt to dismantle them, leaving new ones in their place.
Although the
production of safer sex is done by different actors with
different agendas,
some of the resulting messages are similar. For
example, all rely on constructing
the individual as potentially
ultimately capable of doing safer sex. It
is up to each individual
person. But something in is certainly missing in
this construction. By
relying on the construction of the individual as a
flexible risk manager,
the individual is often taken out of the social context.
We do not all
reside in places where control and information are so readily
available.
First, the CDC's PSAs have an
anticipated large audience. These messages
establish dichotomous
constructions of safer sex as entailing either a commitment
to abstinence
or an unproblematized adoption of consistent and correct condom
usage.
These messages are aimed at a presumably young (18-25 year old),
heterosexual, ethnically diverse audience. Within these short, slick,
precautionary
advertisements, safer sex is a prevention tactic to avoid a
deadly virus.
It is not presented as an extension of one's sexuality, as
in sex manuals
and by sex workers. Rather, choosing between two
alternatives is the simplistic
message of the PSAs without regard to the
mitigating circumstances within
which we live our lives.
Second, sex manuals although less
accessible to the general population,
can more explicitly address safer
sex. Although there are abundant differences
in style and approach, these
manuals rely on relatively similar standards
to engage their readers: sex
information, differentiated risk lists, advice
regarding latex, including
self empowerment and self esteem exercises and
advice. Simultaneously,
they represent a historical phenomena of late twentieth
century American
society. At a critical time of health care economic devastation,
they
promote crusades for perfect individual bodies and social reformation
and
in turn create new and bolster extant standards by which to judge our
sexual practices, our corporeality and our political convictions.
Third, sex workers, probably
the least accessible source of information
about safer sex to a large
audience, present the actual embodiment of safer
sex within the work that
they do. Safer sex is indeed part of a regimen
of health awareness within
sex work. Since sex workers must rely on their
health for their financial
compensation, they develop strategies to maintain
their well-being while
serving clients' interests. At the same time, safer
sex has been
appropriated as a specialized knowledge toward goals of
professionalization.
Sex workers advertise their aptitude and expertise,
develop different strategies
to incorporate safer sex within the sexual
session and teach clients to
become whore-educated guys. This safer sex
in action, attested by these
sex workers' accounts, encompasses a broad
range of variation in activities.
Safer sex is presented as an ongoing
performance which varies from client
to client. It is an enactment which
is situated within specific conditions
of immediate environments and not
related to an absolutist message, like
the PSAs.
What are some of the
effects of these three sites of knowledge production
about safer sex and
our society in general? Despite their differences in
presentation, method
and messages, these sites are mutually constitutive
forces in creating
knowledge of safer sex. There are varying degrees of
interaction between
the three sites: sex workers call the CDC and read sex
manuals, sex
manuals cite sex worker practices and CDC information. Additionally,
audiences have the potential of taking in information from all of these
sources. Sex workers' knowledge about safer sex formed with and
transmitted
to their clients, and their clients' subsequent interactions
beyond the
work dyad, have the potential to filtrate this knowledge to
other social
worlds and larger arenas. The boundaries between these
knowledge producers
are porous, therefore audiences can develop their own
cumulative and sometimes
contradictory conceptualization of safer sex. In
this vein, safer sex has
become a complex system of information, produced
by different sources with
different agendas and available for consumption
on television, the radio,
through books and printed materials and
interactions with others. Taken
together, these three sources of
knowledge production may filter into broader
transformations in thinking
about health and the human body in the time
of epidemic. These messages,
the proliferation of safer sex concepts, point
to changes in how we view
ourselves within contemporary arrangements of
sexuality.
My
research then focused more intensely on my interviews with 27 interviews
with 19 sex workers. You might be asking yourself, who were these sex
workers
that I interviewed.
Gender:
17 women and 2 men.
Sexual Identity:
4
heterosexual or ìbasically straightî
5 bisexual
1
fluid
2 ìpan sexualî
2 lesbian (ìlast country
dykeî)
1 gay
1 not identify (ìI don't identify that
wayî)
3 queer
Age range:
24-56 (most were in
their mid to late 30s)
Length of time
6 months to 25 years
average 5-8 years
Pay:
$250-300 hour and men $100-150
Racial/ethnic identity:
14 white/Caucasian--This was the least
specified group. ("Irish",
immigrants from European
countries)
1 African American
1 "Mixed race, I am basically
a mutt of many different things. Part
Puerto Rican, part
English."
1 "Half Native American"
1 "Half
Rumanian"
1 "Part Cuban"
It is crucial to
situate these informants within the conditions of sex work
as these
conditions foster a greater level of sex worker control; these
workers
set their own parameters regarding safer sex. These informants often
compare their situation with the ìgirls and boys on the
streetsî
suggesting that the street environment is not as conducive
to enforcing
safer sex. My informants were aware of their high level of
control of the
interaction--based on their organizing the sexual
encounter, often on their
own turf. Further, their higher cost meant that
a particular type of clientele
responded to the ads. When discussing
negotiation of safer sex, Gina explains,
"I think that it is more
problematic for sex workers who feel they
don't have as much control or
experience. And unfortunately the laws increase
their risk because it is
more difficult to spread information. And some
of them are not feeling
like they have any control. They are younger, more
easy to intimidate. I
guess I am also drawing a distinction here between
professional
prostitutes and those that are doing it for drugs or other
stuff and not
really a career." When thinking about negotiating safer
sex and
sexual encounters in general, Quincy asks "how empowered is
somebody
to think sexuality is under their control in the first place."
In
other words, my informants are working under specific conditions which
enable them to negotiate safer sex in particular and controlled ways.
Their
age, their clientele, the price range, the location and work
experiences
enable them certain power to choreograph the sexual
encounter.
These conditions of
sex work provide the scaffolding upon which networks
and resources can be
built. Sex workers can and do communicate through casual
connections,
community based organizations and political organizing. Responding
to the
social organization of AIDS has created a "shock of identityî
(Treichler 1988a) in which there have been subtle and dramatic shifts in
how these individuals formulate, understand and adjust their identities.
When one is in the business of human sexual interaction, achieving and
selling
competency in safer sex is imperative to livelihood. How is it
that these
sex workers become competent professionals within safer sex
and maintain
this competency with changing conceptions of AIDS/HIV? What
are the basic
social processes that enables these transformations of
selves?
In general, latex
device failure stories follow the emotional and physical
retrospective
reactions of the sex worker to the realization that a device
has slipped
or broken. Blame for the break or slip is usually not placed
on the
individual sex worker in the session, and clients may be blamed
initially.
It is eventually concluded that several other factors may lead
to latex
deterioration. Primarily latex device failure stories have to do
with condoms.
Some fall off after strenuous sexual activity. Condoms
break either because
of contact with oil-based products (i.e. massage oil
and Vaseline) as Anne
describes: "I was doing a massage and some of
the oil must have gone
from my hands to the condom." Condoms also
break because of faulty
material construction: "it just wore
out."
In the following excerpted interview transcript of a 35
year old, six year
veteran prostitute, Michelle describes to me what she
did and felt about
herself in two different condom failure situations.
Her self-portrayal reveals
a transformed self emerging from one situation
to the next. There is a shift
from the inexperienced self to the
experienced self, from the "freaked
outî and hysterical self
to the calm and composed self.
During this section of the interview at Michelle's home and work space,
we had been discussing latex devices and passing them back and forth
between
each other. She held up a condom and said, "Not even these
are all
safe. I had one or two breaks."
Lisa: When it broke what did you do?
Michelle: Freak.
Oh no, you know, I can't...
4-6 Abstract
I used to freak in front of clients.
The first time one broke on me,
actually it didn't break it fell off.
I was having,
7-10 Orientation
I was working with my girlfriend doing a double
I was just learning the ropes
and it was doggy style
11-20 Complicating Action
and the condom got lost inside of me
and the guy ejaculated inside of me
I...was...ahhh...just...shattered.
So I'm in the bathtub, you know,
trying to clean myself up,
I am crying
and I was screaming.
She's made the customer leave.
She's trying to console me,
20-51 Evaluation
and of course, I just hated that guy at that point,
I hated his guts,
I wanted to kill him.
And the reason that I felt hostility towards him is
because usually if something happens, if something happens a lot of times
the guy is largely responsible for it.
He's either getting too rough,
too rambunctious,
he's getting pushy or bossy,
"I want it in this position,
no, roll over, do this,"
you know, something like that,
um, or he's really trying to get way too much for his money.
Like he wants to fuck you for a half an hour
before he comes,
that sort of thing.
And so you're putting up with it,
and putting up with it
because on some level you put up with a certain amount all the time,
I mean you know,
I'd love it if they'd just give me $250
and talk to me
and left,
so on some level, you know, I'm enduring a certain amount of interaction.
And then it becomes that
you have to catch yourself
to make sure you don't start connecting more than you should,
and sometimes it's a real judgment call,
you know, where's that boundary.
So in this particular case
I was just still trying to feel things out,
I didn't know what I was doing.
52-58 Result
And now when I do doggy style
I usually always put my hand back there,
I will not let go of the base of the penis
because I keep ahold of the condom
because I cannot --
I have no control what they're doing back there
and from experience I know
59-61 Coda
there's just too much chance of pulling out of the condom
and leaving the condom stuck in me
and then now you know, it's dripping all over the place, no thank you.
Lisa: So when it broke...
63 Abstract
Michelle: This guy did not ejaculate,
64-67 Orientation
he didn't ejaculate the whole time he was here,
but, and he wasn't one of those guys whose like a oozy, lots of pre- ejaculate,
in fact I never saw any pre-ejaculate with the condom on,
but I'm sure there was pre-ejaculate in the condom
once it had been on for awhile.
69-75 Complicating Action
He, for some reason, had a hard, hard time coming...
Lisa: Did he know when it broke?
Michelle: I don't think so.
I think his dick was just numb. (laughter)
It was just hard and numb.
For all I know he probably did a popsicle on me,
like stick some coke on it before he got here.
76-79 Result
Because that thing -- it wouldn't go off,
I couldn't get -- and I did everything.
And the reason the condom broke in my opinion is because he just, it , it =
Lisa: =Wore it out.
Michelle: Yeah, it reached the end of its life.
81-97 Evaluation
And what I learned from that
it was the first time those condoms had broke,
and I kind of had the feeling those particular brand was invincible,
I wasn't sure they could break.
Now I know they can,
given the right circumstances,
And I also --
you know, again, every so often we take chances
or get sloppy about our work.
You know, you might leave your money laying out,
might turn your back on a client,
might let him bring in a briefcase or a backpack or something.
And then you have a close call
and you realize -- remember to be careful.
In this
excerpt, Michelle is telling two stories. In the first story, the
condom
fell off and got lost inside of her as she was "learning the
ropesî with a doubles partner. During this recounting of a previous
experience, she expressed a lot of emotion. She admits that "I
didn't
know what I was doing." The evaluation was to change her
physical ritual
in sex acts and to re-evaluate her level of trust. She
learns how to work
with clients' bodies and the need to keep emotional
distance. In the second
story, the condom broke but the client didn't
come--the condom just wore
out. She was calmer and more in control.
Michelle views this latex failure
as a wake up call to "remember to
be carefulî in everything that
she does including several factors
in her list of occupational hazards.
In the first story, she blames
herself as being too inexperienced and vulnerable
being manipulated or
controlled by clients. She is out of control and cannot
direct the
situation. She used to freak but does not any more. In her more
recent
story, she blames the client for complicating the situation in a
nefarious way and the limited life span of the device itself. Her own
identity,
always in the process of becoming through this transformation
of self, must
remember that if you get sloppy about work, then you may
increase your chance
of certain risks. AIDS/HIV is one of a list of risks
sex workers confront.
Refining
one's self concept as a safer sex worker
may involve a "scaryî
experience in which individuals internalized
standards of safety are
violated. Practice over time and
"scaryî turning points
both encourage sex workers to shape themselves
into competent,
experienced and empowered safer sex workers. "Scaryî
experiences of latex failure can be more easily integrated into the work
scenario instead of "freaking out in front of clientsî and
routines
can be relied upon as skillful illustrations of one's
professionalism.
Becoming a
competent sex worker is a complicated
process requiring the alignment of
many conditions. These informants individually
and collectively (as a
profession) stake a claim in safer sex competency.
This claim staking
takes place though the continuous reflexive evaluation
of the sexual
biography, the combination of previous and ongoing sexual
interactions
with clients and lovers. In order to practice safer sex, these
sex
workers must be able to take charge in the sexual session, deploy latex
devices, and set boundaries in client-worker relationships. Safer sex
becomes
a practice, a component of embodied identity and series of
meanings applied
to particular situations. It can be transmitted to
others and used to continuously
reconfigure the self. Sex workers are
amazingly adaptable people developing
skills and internal mechanisms to
figure out how to remain working in a
dangerous environment. One way to
maintain safety within dangerous environments
is through the
manipulation, innovation and incorporation of latex devices
within sexual
sessions.
TECHNOLOGIES
Tools of the trade: "It's like
you use pots
and pans to cook. It's the tool."
Male Condom
Female Condom
Gloves
Dental Dams/Saran Wrap
What I found through my interviews and playful discussions about each latex devices is that these devices emerge in the interactive work of communities of practice. There is not one singular individual who invented and innovated these devices. Rather there are collectivities of users who generate applications and meanings of these devices through their imaginative work practices and work sharing. Some devices are fairly stable, like the use of male condoms in sexual intercourse. However, sex workers have interesting relationships with other latex devices.
Other devices are at varying points of coming to matter or being stabilized. Female condoms are at the earliest stage of integration into sexual practices. The novelty of the device, the expense and the difficulty of application make the device less well liked and less used. Dental dams and saran wrap have a mixed reception by this community of practice. The lack of scientific research and evidence about oral transmission of HIV in oral sex with women does not encourage workers to be vigilant about controlling vaginal secretions and saliva. Dams and saran wrap as devices are periodically used on a case by case basis and they are constantly innovated to make them easier to use and apply. For example, latex gloves are altered to create grips for use in oral sex.
Configuration of the user, that is creating new users of the technologies and thus practices of safer sex, is a multi-level process. At the same time that sex workers are configured by the latex technologies, in that they modify their practices to accommodate latex (putting condoms on with mouth), sex workers configure new users. Sex workers, through transferring technology and configuring new users are turning clients into abiding citizens of safer sex. Once themselves disciplined or configured by the technologies, they become the technologies or machine (in a sense) and further the discipline. Successful configuration has much to do with associating latex with pleasure and creating particular conditions in the interaction that enable the client to feel cared for. As Quincy states, associating latex with particularly pleasurable activity enables sex workers to more successfully integrate the device into an activity. "Using latex is a promise, using saran wrap is a promise, saying now this thing gets to happen. I like it as a sex signifier." Fulfilling the promise is one way sex workers configure users to safer sex.
Understanding the innovations and configurations of these devices and their users is not merely an academic area of inquiry. These devices are crucial components of the production of safer sex, featured in the messages and prevention rituals of safer sex. In the case of sex work, innovation of technology happens in sites where the innovators are not acknowledged, evidenced in the lack of history around some of the key devices. Configuration is a persistent process where the sex worker is a configured user and an innovative user at the same time and also configures other users. Each innovation requires further configuration of new users, the clients. By understanding the basic social processes of this innovation and configuration, we are able to explore how different social groups develop, re-negotiate, or discard particular devices based on certain criteria. These criteria have to do with cost, ease of application, level of scientific evidence about the device, contribution to pleasure and practice, and ease of integration into the sex act. Configuring users to these technologies further legitimates sex workers' practitioner and expert status at manufacturing and producing safer sex. These tools, innovated in the suggested ways, reside in the professional jurisdiction of sex workers. These sex workers are generous in sharing this highly specialized and crafted relationship with the technologies with new users as souvenirs and reminders of the professional experience.
In conclusion, I have explored the processes of producing knowledge about safer sex. Specifically, I concentrate on exploring certain groups' creation of and interaction with the cultural artifacts of safer sex, discourses and practical applications of the knowledge. I trace the development of safer sex as a series of both divergent and similar messages and ideological commitments. There has been an emergence of self-authorized knowledge producers each contributing to our social understanding of safer sex. In the process of learning about safer sex, there is also an expectation that we will conform to certain agendas of those producing the messages. The CDC, sex manuals, and sex workers have investments in our adherence to their versions of safer sex. My dissertation offers a sociological analysis of the crusade of each of these groups to reach us through the fabrication of profoundly important messages.
Meanings about safer sex will continue to go through moments of relative stability and flux. Within this dissertation, I have explored some of the knowledges, technologies, and identities emerging from the social construction of safer sex. In so doing, I have explored how safer sex is packed with our understandings of health, life, death, power, sexuality, expertise, and professionalism. Unpacking these meanings enables us to envision the complex of knowledge production. Perhaps through our acknowledging, critically evaluating and deploying this knowledge complex, we will be able to attend to the tasks of creating alternate models to transmit valuable information. These models, however, must be self-reflexive, temporary, and flexible to reinterpretation.
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