Modernizing Sexuality

U.S. HIV Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

Moving beyond the boundaries of HIV scholarship, Modernizing Sexuality shows how Western idealizations of normative sexuality and the power of modernity intersect in U.S. HIV prevention policy. In this book, Anne Esacove gathers interview, archival, and ethnographic data from the United States and Malawi to reveal failing U.S. prevention efforts. As seen in the promotion of "love matches" and women's right to "say no" to sex, modernization embedded within U.S. policy actually limits action against this widespread epidemic, and even exacerbates HIV risk among women. Instead, by illuminating the collective solutions and multiple paths of prevention used by Malawians, Esacove's analysis expertly exposes these fundamental flaws and provides direction for potentially more effective strategies. Through this analysis, Modernizing Sexuality not only reveals major U.S. health policy flaws, but asks important questions about prevention narratives, medicalizing social justice advocacy, and feminist and sexuality theories as a guide for HIV prevention policy. Closing with an alternative narrative, Esacove reimagines risk and offers readers innovative prevention strategies to guide future policy endeavors.