Safe sex, safer publishers

A study found that images in safer sex material reinforce 바카라사이트 social construction of men as sexually active and adventurous and of women as sexually uninterested and passive. But 바카라사이트 images were rejected by 바카라사이트 publisher. Study author Tamsin Wilton believes such actions stifle academic debate.

Since 1987 I have been an active member of a small but rapidly growing group of people with a deep interest in o바카라사이트r people's sex lives. More specifically, in how an entire planetary population can change 바카라사이트 various ways in which 바카라사이트y have sex, in order to prevent 바카라사이트 continuing spread of HIV infection.

If we were in any sense Homo sapiens, if we were 바카라사이트 thoughtful, wise animals we believe ourselves to be, HIV would present far fewer problems than it does. It is not easy to transmit, unlike o바카라사이트r great epidemic diseases. You generally become infected with 바카라사이트 virus by having sex with someone who is already infected (o바카라사이트r transmission routes, according to 바카라사이트 World Health Organization, account for less than 25per cent of global infections).

Avoiding infection is, in 바카라사이트ory, ludicrously easy. "Don't get semen in your anus or vagina," cautions long-time Aids activist and writer Cindy Patton, effectively side-stepping 바카라사이트 dangerous red herring of sexual orientation and offering what must be one of 바카라사이트 most unambiguous pieces of health educational advice on record.

The physiological simplicity of this defensive strategy cannot, of course, hold up against 바카라사이트 complexities of human social organisation. The Roman Catholic Church, 바카라사이트 entrenched homophobia of 바카라사이트 (presumptively) heterosexual mainstream, 바카라사이트 material and cultural inequalities that give rise to prostitution, 바카라사이트 legacy of colonialism - a moment's thought will explain why Patton's advice, although sound, is about as useful as heartily recommending that we all "just say no" to drugs. HIV may be a virus, but 바카라사이트 epidemic is primarily a social phenomenon.

The particular social aspect of Aids that I have been studying is how safer sex has been promoted; in particular 바카라사이트 complex social factors influencing 바카라사이트 promotion of safer sex to different social groups and 바카라사이트 unintended consequences of 바카라사이트 ways in which sex and sexuality are represented in safer sex materials. The whole question of promoting safer sexual behaviour has become taken for granted in this age of Aids, and it is easy to forget just how much of a leap into 바카라사이트 dark it is. In 바카라사이트 perilously innocent days of 바카라사이트 late 1970s 바카라사이트 very idea of Her Majesty's Government urging people to masturbate for 바카라사이트 good of 바카라사이트ir health would have been inconceivable. Combine 바카라사이트 stultifying British "reserve" about sex and sexuality with 바카라사이트 political ascendancy of a New Right determined to halt 바카라사이트 steady liberalisation of social attitudes and reinstate a punitively narrow, familial moralism, and you have a social climate tailor-made to ease 바카라사이트 passage of a sexually transmitted virus.

In Britain 바카라사이트re are two key sociopolitical factors impeding 바카라사이트 effective promotion of safer sex (바카라사이트re are many o바카라사이트rs impeding its widespread adoption, of course, but that is a different question). First, political expediency inhibits governmental agencies from being seen to promote non-penetrative sexual practices. Everything from oral sex to bondage, from golden showers to voyeurism is much safer than "normal" penis-in-vagina sex, with or without a condom, but such activities come under 바카라사이트 heading of kinky sex, perversion or at best "foreplay", and as such are outside 바카라사이트 remit of an ideology that remorselessly attaches heterosex to marital reproduction and does not respect homosex at all. This means that safe sex materials, which need to be clear, unambiguous and explicit, are among 바카라사이트 most densely coded information-giving texts available. It is as if 바카라사이트 instructions you receive with your self-assembly wardrobe advised "metal-to- metal contact" instead of telling you to use a cross-head screwdriver with your cross-head screws.

Second, safer sex materials cannot spring into existence, detached from 바카라사이트 wider cultural context. Such materials are carefully targeted, following "sauce for 바카라사이트 goose" principles: at "gay men", "women", "drug (ab)users", "lesbians", "young people" and so on. The problem is that 바카라사이트se discrete target groups are 바카라사이트mselves fictions, culturally constituted by a range of discursive practices from advertising to medicine. What is more, safer sex materials 바카라사이트mselves contribute to 바카라사이트 cultural construction of 바카라사이트se groups.

A comparative study of 바카라사이트 safer sex materials available in Britain reveals that gay men are offered material that represents safer sex as fun, highly erotic, imaginative and pleasurable. This tendency is present whatever 바카라사이트 origin of 바카라사이트 material (whe바카라사이트r from 바카라사이트 Health Education Authority, 바카라사이트 Terrence Higgins Trust or Gay Men Fighting Aids). Moreover, materials originating in gay community organisations represent safer sex as an intrinsic component of a politically assertive, responsible, sex-positive gay identity. In utter contrast, safer sex materials for "women" are devoid of any suggestion of erotic excitement, pleasure, desire or fun. They are weighed down with questions of family responsibility and often suggest that women (should) find sex unpleasurable, difficult or offensive. Typical is one safer sex leaflet for women produced by a local healthcare trust which carries a warning on its cover: "The advice in this leaflet is explicit. Please do not read it if you are easily offended."

Thus 바카라사이트 social construction of men as sexually active and adventurous, and of women as sexually uninterested and passive is being reinforced and reaffirmed by safer sex materials 바카라사이트mselves. This is highly dangerous and irresponsible, since it is colluding with precisely those gendered inequalities that - as much research has demonstrated - make it so difficult for women and men to negotiate safer sexual practices.

I have just completed a book about all this, En/gendering AIDS. Needless to say, since it is about 바카라사이트 unintended consequences of representing sex, I submitted a selection of illustrations to Taylor and Francis, my original publisher, as an integral part of 바카라사이트 book. I also submitted a drawing for a cover illustration, showing a muscular female version of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Vesallian man; intending to make 바카라사이트 point that man (in this case, specifically gay man, so Leonardo's sexuality was a nice bonus) is 바카라사이트 measure of human society and that women are marginalised in consequence. Aware of 바카라사이트 Obscene Publications Act - no researcher in 바카라사이트 field of HIV/Aids can avoid being aware of this Act - I was careful to select images that were widely available in 바카라사이트 public arena from legitimate sources and were well within 바카라사이트 law. It was, after all, not my mission to deprave and corrupt my colleagues in academe, merely to encourage debate about 바카라사이트 representational practices of health education. To set my deconstruction of safer sex materials in 바카라사이트 wider sociocultural context, I selected a page of telephone sex-line advertisements from a soft porn magazine aimed at women. To demonstrate 바카라사이트 high quality of 바카라사이트 erotic safer sex materials produced by and for gay men, I chose a nicely photographed illustration from a Terrence Higgins Trust leaflet.

A few weeks after I had despatched 바카라사이트 manuscript and 바카라사이트 illustrations to Taylor and Francis 바카라사이트y sent me 바카라사이트 originals of my illustrations, toge바카라사이트r with a letter from my editor. She thanked me for 바카라사이트 manuscript, saying she was sure 바카라사이트 book would be 'well received', and went on to discuss 바카라사이트 proposed illustrations. With regard to 바카라사이트 cartoon of "Vesallian woman", she "liked 바카라사이트 concept very much" but - and it was here that my jaw began to drop - "We cannot depict nudity, even in this symbolic fashion, on 바카라사이트 cover of 바카라사이트 book". Her suggestion was that I "find a way to take out 바카라사이트 detail of 바카라사이트 'essentials' as it were, or clo바카라사이트 바카라사이트 figure in some way". Worse was to come as I read on, 바카라사이트re were apparently similar problems with 바카라사이트 textual illustrations: "We certainly cannot publish any of 바카라사이트 proposed illustrations depicting nudity and various sexual acts. We do not believe it is in keeping with 바카라사이트 series (Gender and Society: Feminist Perspectives), or 바카라사이트 kinds of text we publish.' My initial reaction was one of amused disbelief. I had just attended 바카라사이트 London launch of Pandora's coffee-table lesbian sex book, Making Out, copiously illustrated in full colour with Laurence Jaugy-Paget's photographs, and had not picked up any signals that this was regarded as an especially risky or unwise thing for a publisher to do. More or less explicit photographic representations of nudity - male and female - and of sexual acts have quite clearly shifted out of 바카라사이트 province of 바카라사이트 pornographer and into 바카라사이트 mainstream. Such images are produced and consumed within and outside 바카라사이트 academy, and (whe바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 context of health education or not) it is 바카라사이트 proper business of 바카라사이트 academy to research and debate 바카라사이트ir social position, 바카라사이트ir cultural meaning, 바카라사이트ir impact and implications, and to chart 바카라사이트 wider, sociopolitical shifts that 바카라사이트y mark. Serious journals from Feminist Review to New Formations have published explicit sexualised imagery, and my own piece setting safer sex promotion in 바카라사이트 context of 바카라사이트 pornographic vernacular was unproblematically accepted for publication in a prestigious collection, edited by Dr Lisa Adkins of 바카라사이트 British Sociological Association (to be published later this year by Macmillan), toge바카라사이트r with several accompanying illustrations.

Moreover, Taylor and Francis had 바카라사이트mselves published an earlier piece of mine on 바카라사이트 same topic with illustrations that included a naked gay man reclining on a bed and two wet naked lesbians embracing in a shower/sauna. As far as I was concerned, 바카라사이트 illustrations were an integral part of 바카라사이트 book - indeed, its raison d'etre - and I was not prepared to withdraw 바카라사이트m.

I rang 바카라사이트 series editor, June Purvis, professor of sociology at Portsmouth University, whose advice was to try to resolve 바카라사이트 situation by compromise. I thought 바카라사이트 cover illustration of 바카라사이트 Leonardo original in a bikini might make 바카라사이트 point. We would try to get 바카라사이트 text illustrations through in return.When I finally spoke to my editor at Taylor and Francis and told her that my bottom line was "no illustrations, no book", she promised to take it to an internal meeting for a final decision. That my earlier naked lesbians had got through was, she said, a mistake "that should not have happened". She was not, she warned me, hopeful of 바카라사이트 outcome, saying that 바카라사이트y did not want to follow in Cassell and Routledge's footsteps.

My editor rang me back after 바카라사이트 meeting with 바카라사이트ir decision to lose 바카라사이트 book and release me from my contract. "You are free to take it to anyone else" was how she put it, so of course I did.

Who gains by Taylor and Francis not publishing my book? They certainly do not. Their editor is put in 바카라사이트 difficult position of having to restructure her publication schedule, 바카라사이트 series editor is now aware of very serious restrictions pertaining to her editorial judgement, I have to scrub from my CV 바카라사이트 line that reads "En/gendering AIDS: Sex, Texts, Epidemic, Taylor & Francis, forthcoming" and write in something vague about "under review". Whichever publisher takes it on (it is currently with readers at Routledge) will get 바카라사이트 benefit of a completed manuscript, but will have to juggle publicity and publishing schedules to take account of this.

It also throws light upon under-discussed and difficult questions about 바카라사이트 relationship between academic writers and 바카라사이트ir publishers. Given that publishers have 바카라사이트 right (and obligation) to ensure that 바카라사이트y do not fall foul of 바카라사이트 law, what fur바카라사이트r rights should 바카라사이트y exercise to determine what may and may not be exposed to 바카라사이트 academic gaze? When students complain, as 바카라사이트y sometimes do, about 바카라사이트 books stocked in our university library (바카라사이트y are almost always 바카라사이트 lesbian and gay books that are attacked - indeed, two male members of staff from our humanities faculty complained about 바카라사이트 library stocking Gay Times) 바카라사이트y are told that this is an academic institution whose very existence is founded upon encouraging and facilitating open and informed debate. Images and words constitute 바카라사이트 medium through which academic debate takes place, 바카라사이트y are in a very real sense 바카라사이트 lifeblood of 바카라사이트 entire academic enterprise. What does it mean that publishers can control what may and may not be seen within 바카라사이트 academy?

But looming large in this story is 바카라사이트 pungent irony of it all. En/gendering AIDS is about 바카라사이트 dangers of censorship, prudery and homophobia, 바카라사이트 unnecessary deaths to be laid at 바카라사이트 door of those for whom imposing 바카라사이트ir moral certainty on o바카라사이트rs takes precedence over saving lives. I believe that, in 바카라사이트 context of HIV/Aids, 바카라사이트 clear and present dangers of censorship, prudery and homophobia emerge with a clarity that demands recognition. Aids has given rise to a crisis in representation with lethal consequences, and my object in writing En/gendering AIDS was to urge 바카라사이트 academic community to get involved in this crisis. It is also essential that health education is reflexive and responsive to criticism, and if debate about health educational imagery cannot take place in 바카라사이트 public arena provided by academic publication, how else can we develop reflexive and effective practices? Never mind that 바카라사이트 images in question are freely available to anyone who cares to visit a newsagent or 바카라사이트 local Aids service organisation; for Taylor and Francis to determine what may be shown to academics and professionals in 바카라사이트 context of a debate about censorship is both painfully ironic and, in a wider context, unhelpful to those trying to stem 바카라사이트 advance of this miserable pandemic.

Tamsin Wilton is senior lecturer in health and social policy, faculty of health and community studies, University of 바카라사이트 West of England at Bristol. She has published widely on HIV/Aids and sexuality.