Centering Praxis in Policies and Studies of Caribbean Sexuality

• Author: Kamala Kempadoo
• Pages: 179-191

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CENTERING PRAXIS IN POLICIES AND STUDIES OF CARIBBEAN SEXUALITY

A number of recent studies and debates assume that it is critical for

researchers, policymakers and programmers to problematize

gendered power and inequalities in order to adequately address HIV and

AIDS epidemics. Indeed, everything points to a need for ‘gender-

mainstreaming’ or a ‘gender-based approach’ in HIV and AIDS work for

the interventions and policies to be effective (Gupta and Weiss 2007;

Raimondo 2005). Yet, is a gendered approach the miracle cure?

Here, I seek not to dispute the significance of gender and gendered

relations of power in the transmission and prevention of HIV. Patriarchy,

social constructions of gender and masculine anxieties about female

sexuality and homosexuality I agree, must be addressed in HIV policies

and programming. However, I also propose that while a focus on gender

is critical, unless we turn adequate attention to sexual praxis we may not

make much headway in stemming the epidemics. In the following, I

offer some thoughts for centering sex in the Caribbean debates, and in so

doing, argue for the delineation of a specific field of inquiry in Caribbean

studies.

This chapter is part of the outcome of a 2006 study that aimed to

assist UNIFEM and its partners to ‘better understand and therefore address

how gender and sexuality are related to risk and vulnerability’ in the

Caribbean.1 It draws from a review of approximately 150 documents

(reports, unpublished papers, journal articles, media reports, book

chapters, and books) that were identified on the basis of the likelihood

of their providing insights into Caribbean sexuality.2 It also intersects

with many other ideas that were presented at the colloquium held by

Centering Praxis in Policies and

Studies of Caribbean Sexuality

Kamala Kempadoo

Chapter 9