title: Destabilizing science from the right: the rhetoric of heterosexual victimhood in the World Health Organization's 2008 HIV/AIDS controversy.
abstract: This article examines the 2008 World Health Organization/Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS controversy through original reports and media coverage. Analysis reveals that discourse rhetorically exonerates heterosexuals from HIV/AIDS while reifying homophobic and morally righteous ideology about HIV/AIDS and homosexuality. Discourses of "fraudulent science," "heterosexual absence," and reverse victimization destabilize meaning of HIV/AIDS and heterosexuality. "AIDS," "heterosexuality," and even victimhood and minority status were destabilized and resignified in a rhetoric that benefited from its status as science even as it rendered past science suspect as ideological.
authors.affiliation: Women's and Gender Studies, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA. ashleymack@lsu.edu
authors.forename: Ashley Noel
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Mack
mesh_terms: D019548:Crime Victims / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology*; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000266:history* / Q000523:psychology; D049674:History, 21st Century; D063509:Homophobia / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media / Q000266:history; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D014944:World Health Organization / Q000266:history*