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Women and the AIDS crisis
522
Book Reviews
not be accepted as a fully authoritative treatise on the problem because of its lack of consistency in verifying the extensiveness of the effects of problems in the whole Korean society. MI-Z&K KIM UNIVERSITY OF CHONG JIJ, SOUTH KOREA
WOMEN AND THE
AIDS CRISIS, by 150 pages. Pandora, London, 1987.
Diane
Richardson,
As the author herself points out “writing about AIDS at the present time is rather like looking into a kaleidoscope; the picture keeps changing.” This statement is certainly true in relation to medical opinion and policy strategies, but unfortunately public debate about AIDS and HIV remains stuck in a groove of panic and sanctimonious morality which makes Diane Richardson’s avowed intent to challenge “the racism, sexism, and homophobia surrounding the disease” both necessary and important. In the general panic about AIDS there has been little detailed discussion about how the disease is affecting women even though it is now estimated that 50,000 women are HIV positive and 700 have died of the disease in New York alone (Gross, 1987). Women have to date been given only supporting roles in the drama, cast as either “innocent victims,” “dirty whores,” or “guardians of the nation’s health,” so a book which looks directly at the particular relationship of women to AIDS is extremely welcome. This book is not primarily a piece of sociological analysis, but rather a handbook for women which reviews some of the main issues as well as giving specific information. The book is aimed at all women who are concerned about their own risk of infection as well as women who already have AIDS or who are antibody positive and those who are involved in caring for people with AIDS. The book should also be of interest to AIDS watchers everywhere. The book begins with a discussion of the disease, its causes, transmission, symptoms, treatment, etc. and then goes on to look at risk factors in relation to women. The book also includes discussion of the following; lesbians and AIDS, safer sex (for heterosexual women), dealing with being anti-body positive or having AIDS, caring for people with AIDS, and policies and prevention. The book closes with a discussion of the challenge which AIDS presents to the taken for granted view of heterosexual sex as penetration leading to orgasm (male orgasm that is). Social responses to AIDS are presented as being of particular importance to women because an opportunity is opened up to
. . . create new meanings of sexuality that are not based on heterosexual intercourse or on men having more control over sexuality than women. Far from being a restrictive influence, we could see this as liberating for women, in terms of their relationships with men. This is an issue which has been discussed by other feminists (for further discussion, see Coward, 1987; Scott, 1987), but at present there seems to be little cause for optimism and indeed Diane Richardson continues in a more pessimistic vein. “ _ . . the fear with AIDS is that it may lead to new forms of social control.” Given the
current focus on the “condom solution” and the increased stress on the family and monogamy we will have a fight on our hands to get women’s interests on the agenda, but accessible and informative books such as this must be a step in the right direction. My only criticism is the use of the term “high-risk groups” so that, although the book does deal with specific behaviours, there exists the danger of a reinforcement of the flawed thinking which led to AIDS being labelled as a “gay disease.” The HIV virus is blind to social/sexual categories, it is simply a disease with particular modes of transmission. SUESCOTT UNIVERSITYOFMANCHESTER,ENGLAND
REFERENCES Coward, R. 1987, March. Sex after AIDS. New Internationalist. 17. “Bleak lives: Womencarrying AIDS’,
Gross, J. 1987, August New York Times.
Scott, Sara. 1987. Sex and danger: Feminism and AIDS. Trouble andStrife 11 (Summer): 13-17.
edited by Sandra Harding, 193 pages. Published jointly by Indiana University Press and Open University Press, Bloomington and Milton Keynes, 1987. FEMINISM AND M~HODOLOGY,
This book is a fine collection of some of the best known, most original and influential feminist writing on questions of methodology and epistemology from a variety of disciplines. The 10 articles included-are by Joan Kelly Gadol, Marcia Millman and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Carolyn Wood Sherif, Carol Gilligan, Joyce A. Ladner; Dorothy E. Smith, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Heidi Hartmann, Catharine A. MacKinnon, and Nancy C.M. Hartsock. The quality and significance of these diverse articles is enough in itself to make this an important and useful collection for teaching purposes. But the book is much more than the sum of its parts. Sandra Harding has selected, organized, and introduced these articles in such a way that she is able to use her own short introduction and conclusion to the volume to make some key points about feminist methodology clearly, effectively and with great economy. She is concerned to show that feminist analyses which go beyond the essentially limited attempt to simply “add women” to existing bodies of knowledge propose “alternative theories of knowledge that legitimate women as knowers” (p. 3). All the articles included here are powerful illustrations of this. And Harding invites the reader to notice that, for all their diversity, they share three characteristics which she argues are indicative of a distinctive feminist approach to research. In all these articles: (a) women’s experiences, and particularly experiences in struggle, generate the research questions and provide new resources for research; (b) the research is designed for women, that is, it provides explanations of social phenomena that women want and need and can use rather than for welfare departments, manufacturers etc; (c) the researchers place themselves on the same critical plane as those they study, recognizing both their own and their “subjects” subjectivity in a way that
Book Reviews
not be accepted as a fully authoritative treatise on the problem because of its lack of consistency in verifying the extensiveness of the effects of problems in the whole Korean society. MI-Z&K KIM UNIVERSITY OF CHONG JIJ, SOUTH KOREA
WOMEN AND THE
AIDS CRISIS, by 150 pages. Pandora, London, 1987.
Diane
Richardson,
As the author herself points out “writing about AIDS at the present time is rather like looking into a kaleidoscope; the picture keeps changing.” This statement is certainly true in relation to medical opinion and policy strategies, but unfortunately public debate about AIDS and HIV remains stuck in a groove of panic and sanctimonious morality which makes Diane Richardson’s avowed intent to challenge “the racism, sexism, and homophobia surrounding the disease” both necessary and important. In the general panic about AIDS there has been little detailed discussion about how the disease is affecting women even though it is now estimated that 50,000 women are HIV positive and 700 have died of the disease in New York alone (Gross, 1987). Women have to date been given only supporting roles in the drama, cast as either “innocent victims,” “dirty whores,” or “guardians of the nation’s health,” so a book which looks directly at the particular relationship of women to AIDS is extremely welcome. This book is not primarily a piece of sociological analysis, but rather a handbook for women which reviews some of the main issues as well as giving specific information. The book is aimed at all women who are concerned about their own risk of infection as well as women who already have AIDS or who are antibody positive and those who are involved in caring for people with AIDS. The book should also be of interest to AIDS watchers everywhere. The book begins with a discussion of the disease, its causes, transmission, symptoms, treatment, etc. and then goes on to look at risk factors in relation to women. The book also includes discussion of the following; lesbians and AIDS, safer sex (for heterosexual women), dealing with being anti-body positive or having AIDS, caring for people with AIDS, and policies and prevention. The book closes with a discussion of the challenge which AIDS presents to the taken for granted view of heterosexual sex as penetration leading to orgasm (male orgasm that is). Social responses to AIDS are presented as being of particular importance to women because an opportunity is opened up to
. . . create new meanings of sexuality that are not based on heterosexual intercourse or on men having more control over sexuality than women. Far from being a restrictive influence, we could see this as liberating for women, in terms of their relationships with men. This is an issue which has been discussed by other feminists (for further discussion, see Coward, 1987; Scott, 1987), but at present there seems to be little cause for optimism and indeed Diane Richardson continues in a more pessimistic vein. “ _ . . the fear with AIDS is that it may lead to new forms of social control.” Given the
current focus on the “condom solution” and the increased stress on the family and monogamy we will have a fight on our hands to get women’s interests on the agenda, but accessible and informative books such as this must be a step in the right direction. My only criticism is the use of the term “high-risk groups” so that, although the book does deal with specific behaviours, there exists the danger of a reinforcement of the flawed thinking which led to AIDS being labelled as a “gay disease.” The HIV virus is blind to social/sexual categories, it is simply a disease with particular modes of transmission. SUESCOTT UNIVERSITYOFMANCHESTER,ENGLAND
REFERENCES Coward, R. 1987, March. Sex after AIDS. New Internationalist. 17. “Bleak lives: Womencarrying AIDS’,
Gross, J. 1987, August New York Times.
Scott, Sara. 1987. Sex and danger: Feminism and AIDS. Trouble andStrife 11 (Summer): 13-17.
edited by Sandra Harding, 193 pages. Published jointly by Indiana University Press and Open University Press, Bloomington and Milton Keynes, 1987. FEMINISM AND M~HODOLOGY,
This book is a fine collection of some of the best known, most original and influential feminist writing on questions of methodology and epistemology from a variety of disciplines. The 10 articles included-are by Joan Kelly Gadol, Marcia Millman and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Carolyn Wood Sherif, Carol Gilligan, Joyce A. Ladner; Dorothy E. Smith, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Heidi Hartmann, Catharine A. MacKinnon, and Nancy C.M. Hartsock. The quality and significance of these diverse articles is enough in itself to make this an important and useful collection for teaching purposes. But the book is much more than the sum of its parts. Sandra Harding has selected, organized, and introduced these articles in such a way that she is able to use her own short introduction and conclusion to the volume to make some key points about feminist methodology clearly, effectively and with great economy. She is concerned to show that feminist analyses which go beyond the essentially limited attempt to simply “add women” to existing bodies of knowledge propose “alternative theories of knowledge that legitimate women as knowers” (p. 3). All the articles included here are powerful illustrations of this. And Harding invites the reader to notice that, for all their diversity, they share three characteristics which she argues are indicative of a distinctive feminist approach to research. In all these articles: (a) women’s experiences, and particularly experiences in struggle, generate the research questions and provide new resources for research; (b) the research is designed for women, that is, it provides explanations of social phenomena that women want and need and can use rather than for welfare departments, manufacturers etc; (c) the researchers place themselves on the same critical plane as those they study, recognizing both their own and their “subjects” subjectivity in a way that