Destabilizing Science From the Right: The Rhetoric of Heterosexual Victimhood in the World Health Organization's 2008 HIV/AIDS Controversy |
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Authors: | Ashley Noel Mack MA |
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Institution: | 1. Women's and Gender Studies, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge , Louisiana , USA ashleymack@lsu.edu |
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Abstract: | This article examines the 2008 World Health Organization/Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS controversy through original reports and media coverage. Analysis reveals that discourse rhetorically exonerates heterosexuals from HIV/AIDS while reifying homophobic and morally righteous ideology about HIV/AIDS and homosexuality. Discourses of “fraudulent science,” “heterosexual absence,” and reverse victimization destabilize meaning of HIV/AIDS and heterosexuality. “AIDS,” “heterosexuality,” and even victimhood and minority status were destabilized and resignified in a rhetoric that benefited from its status as science even as it rendered past science suspect as ideological. |
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Keywords: | floating signifier heteronormativity HIV/AIDS science discourse victimhood |
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