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No Need to Wrap It: HIV Gift-giver Newsgroups, Gift Theory and Exchanging HIV as a Gift

No Need to Wrap It: HIV Gift-giver Newsgroups, Gift Theory and Exchanging HIV as a Gift. Messages were downloaded from 17, Web-based, Gift-giver / Bug-chaser newsgroups Postings dated from Sept. 1998 to Feb. 2003 281 messages were categorized thematically to form a typology of the Gift

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No Need to Wrap It: HIV Gift-giver Newsgroups, Gift Theory and Exchanging HIV as a Gift

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  1. No Need to Wrap It: HIV Gift-giver Newsgroups, Gift Theory and Exchanging HIV as a Gift • Messages were downloaded from 17, Web-based, Gift-giver / Bug-chaser newsgroups • Postings dated from Sept. 1998 to Feb. 2003 • 281 messages were categorized thematically to form a typology of the Gift • HIV-Gift narratives were then read with reference to sociological and anthropological theories of gift-exchange

  2. Barebacker & Gift-giver Rationales Gift-giver / Bug-chaser rationales echo themes found in the Barebacking literature. • Condom-less sex is more natural, real, intimate • Risk-takers are essentially masculine, hyper-masculine • Individual choice • Acts of rebellion, resistance • Safer-sex exhaustion; inevitability of HIV infection • Treatment breakthroughs • Eroticize illness, AIDS, STDs, decay • Fetishisation of Ejaculate • Gendered sex roles, e.g., penetration = feminization

  3. The Gift of… the Gift the Bug Disease, AIDS Poz, Pozzing Voltage, Charging Toxin, Poison, Death The Gift facilitates… Conversion, New Life Becoming a Giver Joining Poz Brotherhood Pregnancy, Breeding Denigrating the Unawares, the ‘Clean’ The Typology of the Gift

  4. Gift-giver gives ‘Gift’ Gift-givers are described as powerful, valued, masculine Tops Bug-chaser receives ‘Gift’ Bug-chasers are described as weak, worthless, feminized Bottoms Gift of HIV is always given by Tops to Bottoms. ‘Real Sex’ is natural, extreme, dirty, risky HIV negative = Clean HIV positive = Dirty HIV+ ejaculate is Gifted, Buggy, Charged, Dirty, Poisoned, Toxic, Hot Exchange is akin to reproduction. Chasers are impregnated, knocked-up, seeded, etc. Exchanging HIV as a Gift

  5. Key Findings • No Barebacking or Gift-giver newsgroups were found that dated prior to 1997-98, most dated from 2000 • Newsgroups function as self-reinforcing forums • Conceived of as a Gift, the meaning of HIV can be manipulated to fulfill particular goals • Becoming HIV+ is considered inevitable, desirable • As with any gift, the Gift of HIV is transformative • Exchanging HIV provides a sense of control • Extreme sex provides a sense of sexual transgression that safe-sex precludes

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