http://www.world-science.net/othernews/othernews-nfrm/040809_aids.htm

Having AIDS is macho for some rural Africans

Posted August 9
University of Alberta

Attitudes towards AIDS in rural Africa are complex and often
contradictory, says Dr Amy Kaler from the University of Alberta's
Faculty of Arts.  Kaler investigated the ways that young men in rural
southern Malawi, Africa talk about HIV and their own perceptions of
risk. The U of A sociologist studied journals kept by people working
with the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP), in
which they wrote down every conversation, casual chat or passing
reference about AIDS.

In communities in southern Malawi, where HIV prevalence is estimated
at roughly 13%, young men are often conflicted as to whether they will
be able to avoid contracting AIDS. Some say that they do not believe
they will be alive in five years' time, while others say that by
exercising self-discipline and relying on inner strength, they will be
able to live out a good life.

Kaler also claims that the relationship between AIDS and masculinity
is more complex than has been previously thought. While young men
actually want to have AIDS, the behaviours that put young men at risk
for HIV – being sexually active with lots of partners – are the same
behaviours that give men high status among their peers. Young men
often boasted to their friends about their likelihood of being HIV+,
as a way of boasting about the number of girlfriends they had had. For
example, one man went so far as to correct another by saying that he
had slept with all the desirable girls in one particular village so if
anybody is going to be the cause of an AIDS outbreak it would be him.

In many settings, AIDS is associated with shame and guilt but in other
contexts such as male homosocial groups, the virus may take on
different meanings, said Kaler. "Given the relative homogeneity of
masculinity scripts around the world, with emphasis on both
heterosexual activity and taking risks, I doubt that these Malawian
men are unique."

Kaler also found that for many men, their beliefs about the virulence
of AIDS are not consistent with current medical understanding of the
disease.

"They assume, first, that it is everywhere and will eventually kill
everyone and second, that AIDS is extremely infective and that if one
has been exposed to the virus, one's days are numbered," writes Kaler
in an article published in the journal "Demographic Research." This
understanding of AIDS risk may be used to justify continuing such
risky sexual behaviour as having multiple partners or not using
condoms--this behaviour is no longer dangerous if one believes he has
already contracted the virus, said Kaler.

The fact that so many claim that they are HIV-positive and appear to
use this belief as a justification for continued unsafe sex has major
implications for future research and HIV prevention education, says
Kaler.