HIV-negativity in serodiscordant relationships: the absence, enactment, and liminality of serostatus identity.
Three decades into the HIV epidemic, one affected group remains largely invisible: HIV-negative people in intimate relationships with HIV-positive people. Their lives are entwined with the everyday realities of HIV, whether emotional, sexual, social, or medical, yet their experiences, meanings, and practices of being HIV-negative in that context are little considered and understood. When they do appear in the HIV literature, they tend to be assigned an identity that is preconceived as inherently different from and in tension with HIV-positivity. Using anthropological theory, research literature, and qualitative interviews with HIV-negative partners in Australia, I challenge this idea by exploring the social absence, enactments, and liminality of HIV-negative identity in serodiscordant relationships.
National Centre in HIV Social Research at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. a.persson@unsw.edu.au
Asha
A
Persson
D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D018023:HIV Seronegativity; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*