'Beyond the missionary position?'

A Berlin-based research about how gay and bisexual men perceive, engage with and appropriate contemporary sexual health promotion

[beyondthemissionaryposition-blog]

The part of the new "Mach's Mit - Wissen und Kondom" campaign, targeting gay men, really shows how message strategies can backfire horribly... if used improperly. What do you think a good campaign requires?

[beyondthemissionaryposition-blog]

Die Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung aktivierte in einem Online-Film das Homo-Klischee pur – und nahm ihn nun aus dem Netz

(..) Immerhin hat die BZgA auf den massiven Shitstorm, also eine Vielzahl von Protesten im Netz, reagiert und den Clip zurückgezogen. >> Kommentar von Christian Mentz http://www.siegessaeule.de/queere-welt-1000/shitstorm-wirbelt-aufklaerungsfilm-aus-dem-netz.html <<

[beyondthemissionaryposition-blog]

„Sexuelle übertragbare Infektionen sind ein bedeutendes Thema für die Aids-Prävention“, sagte BZgA-Direktorin Elisabeth Pott, (..) Zu Safer Sex gehört daher neben dem Kondom auch das Wissen über STI, über Ansteckungswege und Schutzmöglichkeiten.“

http://www.siegessaeule.de/queere-welt-1000/neue-bzga-kampagne-machs-mit-wissen-und-kondom.html

[beyondthemissionaryposition-blog]

What do you think about contemporary sexual health promotion? What do you think about the campaigns that, for instance promote safer sex? Is there enough attention to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, too little, or even too much? Let your opinion be heard through my research!

[beyondthemissionaryposition-blog]

Introduction

Originally, before it was institutionalized and taken up by public health organizations, the concept of ‘safer sex’ was a gay, grassroot invention.  Many authors argue that much of contemporary, institutionalized safer sex promotion continues to recreate a dichotomy based on the moral imperative of health, separating between the ‘good gay citizens’ who privilege health maximization, self-protection and social responsibility and the ‘bad gay citizens’ who choose to risk their health for unprotected sexual pleasure. After three decades of HIV/AIDS, there exists still no consensus as to why gay and bisexual men have unprotected sex. Moreover, some authors even signal a growing resistance of gay and bisexual men towards the practices and discourses of safer sex. Instead of focusing on the reasons for unprotected sex, as many have done before, this research goes down a different road by focusing on how gay and bisexual men perceive, engage with and appropriate contemporary safer sex promotion. It takes up tenets from ‘mediated discourse analysis’ and will try to triangulate different sources of information, by focusing on both the targets and the providers of the campaigns, and on the campaigns themselves. By doing so, this research intends to map out new understandings of how gay and bisexual men are positioned and disposed towards contemporary safer sex and sexual health promotion.

[beyondthemissionaryposition-blog]

A little summary of my research.