IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2006.088492_6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The inevitability of infidelity: Sexual reputation, social geographies, and marital HIV Risk in rural Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Hirsch, J.S.
  • Meneses, S.
  • Thompson, B.
  • Negroni, M.
  • Pelcastre, B.
  • Del Rio, C.

Abstract

Marriage presents the single greatest risk for HIV infection among women in rural Mexico. We drew on 6 months of participant observation, 20 marital case studies, 37 key informant interviews, and archival research to explore the factors that shape HIV risk among married women in one of the country's rural communities. We found that culturally constructed notions of reputation in this community lead to sexual behavior designed to minimize men's social risk (threats to one's social status or relationships), rather than viral risk and that men's desire for companionate intimacy may actually increase women's risk for HIV infection. We also describe the intertwining of reputation-based sexual identities with structurally patterned sexual geographies (i.e. the social spaces that shape sexual behavior). We propose that, because of the structural nature of men's extramarital sexual behavior, intervention development should concentrate on sexual geographies and risky spaces rather than risky behaviors or identities.

Suggested Citation

  • Hirsch, J.S. & Meneses, S. & Thompson, B. & Negroni, M. & Pelcastre, B. & Del Rio, C., 2007. "The inevitability of infidelity: Sexual reputation, social geographies, and marital HIV Risk in rural Mexico," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(6), pages 986-996.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2006.088492_6
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.088492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2006.088492
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2006.088492?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Syvertsen, Jennifer L. & Robertson, Angela M. & Rolón, María Luisa & Palinkas, Lawrence A. & Martinez, Gustavo & Rangel, M. Gudelia & Strathdee, Steffanie A., 2013. "“Eyes that don't see, heart that doesn't feel”: Coping with sex work in intimate relationships and its implications for HIV/STI prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Crankshaw, T.L. & Voce, A. & Butler, L.M. & Darbes, L., 2016. "Expanding the relationship context for couple-based HIV prevention: Elucidating women's perspectives on non-traditional sexual partnerships," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 169-176.
    3. Rebecca L. Thornton & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2017. "Making marriages last: Trust is good, but credible information is better," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-173, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Erwin, Deborah O. & Treviño, Michelle & Saad-Harfouche, Frances G. & Rodriguez, Elisa M. & Gage, Elizabeth & Jandorf, Lina, 2010. "Contextualizing diversity and culture within cancer control interventions for Latinas: Changing interventions, not cultures," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 693-701, August.
    5. Nobles, Jenna & Rubalcava, Luis & Teruel, Graciela, 2015. "After spouses depart: Emotional wellbeing among nonmigrant Mexican mothers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 236-244.
    6. Rebecca L. Thornton & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2017. "Making marriages last: trust is good, but credible information is better," WIDER Working Paper Series 173, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2006.088492_6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.