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6 Staking a claim as normal through Work and relationships with men Stigmatization appears to be a major barrier for women to overcome in order to disclose their hiv status. While stigmatization is a critical factor for everyone living with hiv, the force of stigmatization may be intensified in specific ways for women, since they must make their way through the multiple layers of challenges of particularly gendered forms of hiv stigmatization. gendered hiv stigma may be internalized, causing psychological pain, or it may manifest itself in more concrete ways, such as preventing women from working or going to school and thus making them feel they are not valued members of society and unable to realize their full potential as human beings. nevertheless, women find ways of shielding or “disguising” themselves from the full force of gendered hiv stigma and othering that takes place in their lives. one way women respond is to find ways to normalize themselves. discourses about men and about work emerged in our interviews as normalizing processes to counter stigma. Working is normal Work is an important part of most people’s lives—we earn money through work so that we can pay our expenses. Some people earn enough money through work to live relatively easy lives, but most people in the world earn very little money and must work for wages just to scrape by. for the women we interviewed, work is important for survival, but it also represents something more and is meaningful on several different levels. The following fund-raising story that Priscilla told us in her interview illustrates the special importance of work. The support group in which she participates receives funding from the government, but the demand for services and support exceeds the funding. in order for this support group (and groups like it in the Western cape) to sustain services to members, fund-raising events are held. A common fund-raising strategy is to set up tables in shopping malls and supermarkets and request donations or sell small items such as red ribbons or crafts that the group members have made. Priscilla explained how she was asked by the facilitator of her hiv support group to sit alone with her baby daughter at a fundraising table in a local supermarket to collect money for the organization. Above the table a banner was hung with the name of the support group and a sign reading “Support People Living with hiv/AidS” painted in bold letters. 72 Staking a claim as normal | 73 now i was sitting there and the people is looking at me and looking at my baby, you know? i can see they feel ashamed for me. And, umm, “What’s your name? . . . Are you hiv?” the people come and ask me. “is this baby also hiv? . . . is this your baby? Because it’s a very beautiful baby . . . Are you looking after this baby? . . . is this infant hiv?” A situation like this, where a sign above her head announced her hiv status, could have been distressing and a potential source of enormous stigma or othering for Priscilla. The banner served to draw a distinct line between someone living with hiv and the “normal” customers at the supermarket. however, Priscilla described how as the days went by she began to adjust to sitting under the banner. Part of the reason she became more comfortable had to do with the clothing and monetary donations she was receiving, specifically for herself and her daughter. But she also talked about something that went beyond receiving donations . Priscilla explained how much she began to look forward to waking up in the morning to go to work at the fund-raising table simply because it was work. These positive feelings were quite significant for Priscilla, especially because she had to ready herself and her infant daughter in the morning with no electricity or running water, and many times no food for herself or her child. Just like the other employees in the store, she had to arrive at a particular time on a regular schedule, and her assignment was to work as a community educator, responding to the inquiries of the shoppers who stopped by her table. in return, she received monetary donations for both herself and the support group. This job stigmatized Priscilla because of the disclosure of her hiv status, but she feels that the fact that it was work and that it resulted in material benefits for her and her child allowed...

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