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Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores how experiences of disclosure and passing among heterosexuals living with HIV in Australia can be meaningfully conceptualised beyond therapeutic discourses and habitual metaphors. It engages in a dialogue between qualitative research material, HIV disclosure literature and theory. It is first argued that an emphasis on the therapeutic value of disclosure in much of the literature obscures the complexities of HIV stigma as socially produced and lived. Next, the paper considers the concepts of 'the closet' and 'coming out', which have become short-hand for a range of social stigmas. Although parallels are found between the productive effects of the closet and the research material, the idea of 'coming out' fails to capture the cultural context of HIV in Australian heterosexual society. This raises questions about the contemporary tendency to invoke the closet as a presumedly universal metaphor. Foucault's idea of heterotopia is proposed as an alternative way of conceptualising the lived worlds of disclosure and passing in this research study, with the hope of opening out future discussion and theorising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes findings from fieldwork conducted among Pitjantjatjara tribespeople of Central Australia between 1989 and 1997. The study examined the impact of a distinctive gender system and practices of masculinity, particularly sexual and ritual practices, on the risk of contracting sexually transmissible infections and other blood-borne diseases. The research was designed as an ethnography of masculinity, conducted via participant observation, life history interviews, ritual analysis, and critical reflection on the work of early ethnographers. The paper presents selected field data, examined in the light of early twentieth century anthropological description of Pitjantjatjara sexuality. It identifies a systematic deflection of male same-sex attraction away from possible resolution through sexual practices between men. Key components of this deflection are the ritual construction of a culturally distinctive masculinity, the inextricable linkage between masculinity rites and the system for arranging marriages, and the cultural coding of the penis during ritual. The paper concludes that although men may feel erotic attraction for each other, the gender and kinship systems of the Pitjantjatjara conspire to limit completely the possibilities for the physical, sexual expression of this attraction. The findings reported here add to our understanding of the cultural basis of heteronormativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Culture, Health & Sexuality is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Teenage pregnancy is typically presented as a problem to be solved, if not as an epidemic in need of urgent intervention. This paper reports on Australian research that examined the phenomenon of teenage motherhood from the perspective of the young women themselves. The theoretical frame of narrative was adopted in order to understand both the way in which the young mothers were making sense of their own lives, and the way in which they interpreted the canonical narrative of teenage motherhood. Interviews with 20 young mothers demonstrated both their awareness of the canonical narrative, in which they are judged and condemned, and their contrasting autobiographical narratives, in which they are represented as good mothers who are capable of learning the skills of motherhood. Although the women refused to emphasise the disadvantages of teenage motherhood, they acknowledged difficulties. Throughout their autobiographical accounts, a 'consoling plot' was evident. Young women may be supported in their endeavour to emplot their lives to their own benefit by family narratives of teenage motherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results from a national survey of young homeless people aged between 12 and 25 in Australia, revealed a marked contrast between the mainly safe injecting practices and the mainly unsafe sexual practices of a subgroup who injected drugs. This paper offers an analysis of the selfreported sexual and drug injecting behaviours of 178 young people and the qualitative accounts of injecting drug use and sexual behaviour of a smaller group of thirty who were interviewed as part of the larger sample. Young people's stories of the culture and practices surrounding injecting were encouraging in the attention given to notions of responsibility and care for others, and a coherent discourse of belief in 'safe' injecting practices was evident. A notion of the 'druggie' or responsible drug user was contrasted with the 'junkie' or irresponsible user, within the culture of drug use described. Conversely, reported sexual behaviours revealed neither consistent discourses about safe sex, nor an unambiguously expressed personal commitment to safe sex. Analysis of the differences between sex and drug use talk, and the potential implications for intervention, are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outsiders often see Australia as a place that has achieved a remarkable degree of tolerance for social and cultural difference. It has a reputation for a successful and enlightened national HIV/AIDS strategy and as an important gay tourist spot, particularly during Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Legalized sex between men in all jurisdictions has been achieved, most of it during the era of the HIV epidemic. Reforms in anti-discrimination law and the recognition of gay and lesbian relationships are further examples of significant social change concerning sexuality. These achievements suggest that real gains have been made by gay and lesbian political activism and have been used to indicate that there is a new, more open space for Australian gay people to live their lives, accepted as citizens and treated equally. This is true to some extent, but an analysis of a recent, popular 'reality' television programme, Big Brother, reveals a different picture and suggests that the acceptance of gay men in Australia comes at a price. The HIV epidemic has made its own contribution to these social changes, but this too is a mixed blessing for gay men in particular. Just how far Australia has come on this road to social reform concerning sexual equality is assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roles of clinicians and investigators have been increasingly intertwined over the past 30 years. This study explores the tensions of performing both roles in the context of HIV medicine. Clinicians, who are also investigators, were interviewed in Australia during the course of an intensive phase II clinical trial. Clinicians described both positive and negative outcomes of participating in clinical trials. The clinicians considered it beneficial to be able to offer potentially effective therapies at an early stage to their patients and found research broadened their work and experience. They also thought it less disruptive to the patients to be able to enrol at their usual site of health care delivery. Difficulties encountered in engaging in clinical trials were described as problems with the time involved in clinical trial work, and ethical dilemmas in recruitment and retention. Further tensions were associated with the often conflicting demands of patients' interests and research goals. Depuis une trentaine d'années, les rôles de clinicien et de chercheur ont tendance à se confondre de plus en plus. Cet article étudie, dans le contexte de la médecine du VIH, les conflits qui apparaissent lorsque ces deux rôles sont remplis simultanément. Lors d'un essai clinique intensive de phase II effectuéen Australie, nous avons interrogédes cliniciens qui étaient des aussi chercheurs. Ces cliniciens ont decrit les retombées positives et négatives de leur participation à des esscus cliniques. Parmi les aspects positifs, les praticiens considéraient comme bénéfique le fait de pouvoir proposer à leurs patients à un otude précoce des thérapies potentiellement efficaces, et ils ont trouvéque faire de la recherche avait élargi le champ de leur activitéet leur expérience. Ils ont également estimé qu'il était moins perturbant pour leurs patients de pouvoir participer aux études à l'endroit où ils reçoivent habituellement des soins. Parmi les obstacles rencontrés par les praticiens s'engageant dans des études cliniques, ont été mentionnés des problémes lís au temps consacre aux essais, et des dilemmes éthiques concernant le recrutement et le mantier des participants dans un essai. D'autres tensions sont nés de la difficulté à combiner deux exigences contradictoires : l'intérét des patients et les objectifs de la recherche. Los papeles de los médicos clínicos y los investigadores se han entrelazado cada vez más en los últimos 30 años. Este estudio explora las tensiones entre ambos papeles en la practica medica que estudia el VIH. Durante el curso de un ensayo clínico intenso de fase II, fueron entrevistados en Australia médicos cliacute;nicos, que también son investigadores. Estos médicos describieron los resultados de su participación en los ensayos clínicos, tanto positiva como negativamente. Creían que era beneficioso ser capaz de ofrecer a los pacientes terapias potencialmente eficaces en las primeras etapas y pensaban que la investigación ampliaba su trabajo y experiencia. También opinaron que era menos perjudicial para los pacientes que pudieran ir a sus centros usuales de sanidad. Encontraron dificultades en la participación ensayos clínicos ya que representan un problema por el tiempo dedicado al trabajo clíico de los ensayos y un dilema ético alrededorde la selección de pacientes y su retención. Otras tensiones se relacionan con las demandas, a menudo conflictivas, entre los intereses de los pacientes y los objetivos de la investigación. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]