Any port in a storm: coming to terms with HIV in Lao PDR
Lyttleton, C.
Culture Health and Sexuality 1(2): 115-130
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 1369-1058 PMID: 12295451 DOI: 10.1080/136910599301058Document Number: 523084
This paper examines the aspects of sexual interaction in certain settings specifically in Laos to explore further the social background relevant to HIV epidemiology. In nightclubs and drink shops in Laotian towns, social regulations established an atmosphere wherein casual sexual interactions were primarily built through negotiation. Unequal power relations between men and women notwithstanding, because neither identities nor outcomes are always fixed, a discursive space is created for men and women that provides potential opportunity for ideas of safe sex to be incorporated as an integral part of practice emerging from these settings. Paradoxically, however, the very avoidance of public scrutiny that affords this negotiation between the two parties, denies open legitimization of safer sex practice. Also exemplified in this paper are the surveillance, practice, and the staging identity in which the author briefly discusses the issue.