Description
The aim of this study is to critically analyse representations of gender and sex in newspaper reports on HIV and AIDS in the hope of improving messaging around HIV and AIDS. Within the scope of this study recommendations are made at the conclusion of each case study so as to inform prevention campaigns and media on more appropriate ways of representing gender and sex and HIV and AIDS. These recommendations serve as guidelines to inform journalists and civil society on how better to message HIV and AIDS and sexuality. Mutual recognition is used as the theoretical standpoint for understanding sexuality by emphasizing the premise of respect for self and other. Mutual recognition is used as the critical lens to rethink gender beyond constructions of masculinity and femininity, race, class and sexuality; looking for the moments and opportunities for recognition between both masculine and feminine subjects as well as for narratives on sameness and difference beyond race, class and sexuality. Mutual recognition is also the way forward for resisting phallogocentrism and shifting representation away from the workings of male hegemony. The theoretical framework used in this study is based on feminist psychoanalysis and feminist media interpretation. Special mention to the work of Jessica Benjamin, Donna Haraway and Jane Flax for their reception of Freudian theory on the oedipal complex by showing ways of rethinking the oedipal complex and gender differentiation. Foucault’s work on representation shows how we can rethink language to better serve the notion of mutual recognition, placing importance on concepts such as respect, responsibility and caring for self and other beyond race/ethnicity, class, sex/gender or sexuality. Eros and thanatos (life and death drives) is nuanced to highlight how jouissance or the ‘little death’ (orgasm) is a way of resolving the tension between the opposing drives by shifting discourse away from sex and taboo or death by representing sex and pleasure thus emphasizing eros and mutual recognition by fostering a responsibility towards self and other. The study is concluded with a set of guidelines for representing gender and sex in relation to HIV and AIDS. It is significant to note that the methodology of the study is textual analysis and as such it is a qualitative study that relies on interpretative analysis. Therefore there is a measure of transparency and accountability in the interpretation of the case studies.| Period | 1 Oct 2011 |
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