Contradictory Sexualities: From Vulnerability to Empowerment for Adolescent Girls in Barbados

• Author: Christine Barrow
• Pages: 215-238

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CONTRADICTORY SEXUALITIES

Contradictory Sexualities

Christine Barrow

Chapter 11

A deeper understanding of sexual identities and the role of gender

inequality in sexual decision-making and performance is critical to

the development of effective prevention strategies to curtail the spread of

HIV. The key to understanding vulnerability to infection lies in the socially

embedded realities of sexuality, gender and power. Drawing on the findings

of ongoing qualitative research with adolescent girls in Barbados,1 we

focus on the discourses and contradictions of young feminine sexual

identity and, from this perspective, challenge prevailing models of risk

behaviour that have underpinned the response to HIV. We argue that

both normative femininity that privileges virginity followed by

monogamy, and the Caribbean counter-discourse of bashment that

promotes an active, assertive sexuality represent unsafe sexual identities

for teenage girls and that their empowerment is a critical precondition

for sexual protection and HIV prevention. The process of renegotiating

the politics of safer sex against hegemonic masculinity and the unequal

relations of gender and generation must be relocated from the private to

the public domain as an issue of social justice and human rights.

We set the stage by reporting on the official response to HIV and

AIDS in Barbados, on the spread of infection to women and youth, and

on research evidence of risky sexual behaviours among adolescents. We

then present the case for qualitative research on sexuality, gender and

power, and introduce sexual identities in the lives of adolescent girls.

This provides the contextual framework for their narratives on sexual

choices and the process by which they construct their sexual selves. The

conclusion suggests how the HIV and AIDS policy response might be

reframed through the lens of vulnerability and sexual health rights.

From Vulnerability to Empowerment for Adolescent Girls in

Barbados

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SEXUALITY, SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

HIV, GENDER AND YOUTH

Barbados, a small island developing state in the Caribbean, has a

commendable record of social development and response to HIV and

AIDS. Presently ranked at 31 on the UNDP Human Development Index

(HDI), the highest in the Caribbean region, successive governments have

devoted priority attention, political will and resources to combating the

twin epidemics. The success of treatment and care is evident in the 50 per

cent reduction in mortality from AIDS-related infections, and a reduction

in vertical HIV transmission from mother to child by 82 per cent. But

the dependence on the bio-medical response model, supplemented by

care and support, education and information campaigns, has failed to

stem the spread of infection (Barrow 2006). The response continues to

rely on traditional Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

approaches, notably as Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) in

secondary schools, though perhaps with less enthusiasm from officialdom

and a greater awareness of the limitations of their ABC message, with

emphasis on the ‘A’ for the younger generation.2 The most problematic

question in the context of HIV, remains unanswered as it has in other

lifestyle epidemics, that is how to induce the behavioural changes necessary

for self-protection and to stem the tide of infection.

The feminization of AIDS is a world-wide phenomenon (Anderson et

al. 2002; Inciardi et al. 2005, S19; UNAIDS/WHO 2007). In Barbados

during 2006, for the first time, equal numbers of women and men were

diagnosed as HIV-positive. Of serious concern also is the spread of HIV

to the younger female population. Infection rates for adolescent girls

reveal an alarming trend throughout the Caribbean region. For Barbados,

using the cumulative total between 1984, when the first case was

identified, and December 2005, girls outnumber boys in the 10 to 19

year age group by 2.3 to 1 for HIV infection and by 2.5 to 1 for AIDS

cases.3

With the spotlight turned on teenagers at risk, we have learnt much

about youthful sexual behaviour. In Barbados, the results of a series of

knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices (KABP) surveys among young