Whenever counselors talk about anal sex using biological arguments (the anus is meant to do this or that, it's fragile because, etc) we are walking on a fine line between science and morality. A BFC counselor is describing another counselor who describes to clients the risks of anal sex in terms of bacteria. It is important to remember that the way this biological argument about anal sex is received by the client depends to a great extent on the cultural meaning of anal sex as a doubly transgressive act. Anal sex has long been forbidden by the church and the constitution because it is "sodomy" and more recently forbidden because it is linked to STD transmission. AIDS and the emphasis of safer sex education on penetrative acts has thus given anal sex a host of new meanings that signify it as the defining act of gay sex and yet the most forbidden act about which many remain silent for fear of admonishment (See Cindy Patton. (1994). Last Served? Gendering the HIV Pandemic. London: Taylor and Francis (p. 119, note 5.))
C: There's one counselor here who is very good, very competent, all that but he has this thing about anal sex and just feces in general and kind of like, he's not anti anal sex cause it's kind of like well I know those homos are gonna do it, I mean you know he didn't say, I mean it's kind of like people are gonna do it whether I think it's wrong or not, but
Nicolas: "But if you are gonna do it..."
C: "If you are gonna do it. you just need to know there's all these kinds of diseases you can get," so it's not for him it's not just about HIV it's about all these other diseases.
N: "And I've done my duty warning you..."
C: And I mean, there's these things, HHHH lots of things you can get and you know we have a culture that's very anti feces and very anti, as if the average person doesn't handle it everyday practically, I mean, and we can come into contact with it, you know, I mean, we're constantly coming in contact with it cause you're producing it on a constant basis but uh, the sense of kind of denial that we have around well, you know, and I'm not saying there aren't other disease factors that get transmitted but kissing transmits alot too, and so does vaginal intercourse and the vagina grows a lot of things, uh, it's not a hygenic environment itself, you know, and you're peeing down there and when you're sucking on my cock, I'm peeing and cum and all these other kinds of things, those things aren't all sterile fluids, you know, just like feces isn't sterile, uh, and you know, I've been having anal sex for 18 years and I've never gotten anything, you know, uh, so this sense of that it's almost like you're searching for a disease if you have anal sex is/what that does of course is just make people anxious about it
N: If the're not already anxious enough from their [ ]
C: And this is to say you know what, if you approach sex as a hygenic issue you would never have it, sex is not hygienic, you know, so let's just get real clear on that, uh, and you know, there, you have options around how to reduce the transmission risk around anal sex. So, let's empower and educate people about things that you can do rather than immediately assuming there's no reason why, for example, like rimming I'm sure would totally flip him out and put him into the next planet, and I would hazard a guess, I absolutely don't know this, that he's probably never been rimmed or rimmed anyone and has no appreciation for what that might be like or what the significance of that could be and in part because it is so forbidden.
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