Abstract
“Safer sex” denotes an HIV prevention strategy that emphasizes the comparative risks of different sexual practices and conventionally advocates the wearing of condoms to limit the exchange of bodily fluids. Among men who have sex with men (MSM), condom use during anal intercourse was promoted as a moral code and was widely adopted from the late 1980s to early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, condom adherence among MSM declined, which coincided with a resurgence of new HIV infections in the community. The condom code and its promotion were challenged. Meanwhile, “barebacking” – intentional condomless anal intercourse – became fetishized and evolved into a gay subculture. With the advent of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment as prevention, which disrupt the link between condomless intercourse and HIV transmission, the calculus of sexual risk is profoundly recalibrated. Future research must contend with a “new normal” of safer sex as HIV prevention shifts from behavioral to biomedical interventions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology |
| Editors | George Ritzer, J. Michael Ryan, Betsy Thorn |
| Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781405165518 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781405124331 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 23 Apr 2021 |
Scopus Subject Areas
- Health(social science)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Communication
- Gender Studies
- Cultural Studies
User-Defined Keywords
- safer sex
- HIV prevention
- sexual health
- sex education
