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10 Lessons for the World five discourses emerged in our analysis of the interview transcripts: (1) being normal through work and men; (2) disclosure for better or worse; (3) taking care of children; (4) caring for violent men; and (5) women’s bodies. Sometimes these mirror the dominant discourse about hiv, sometimes they pose alternative discourses, and always they reveal the tensions and links between oppression and resistance. our discussions of these five topics shows the women we interviewed drawing upon common ways of talking about femininity and normalcy as a means to reconstruct themselves as humans in the face of dominant discourses, which present hiv-positive women as something less than human. All five topics share an overarching core feature of wrestling with the problem of stigma and using notions and practices of femininity to attempt to overcome stigma and appear as normal and acceptable. Within each discourse, however, we also found ambiguity , contradiction, and resistance. At the same time the women attempt to appear “normal,” they also question and sometimes even challenge these constructs of what it means to be real women. Listening to Women our study suggests that women living with hiv face major obstacles in their lives as they struggle against stigma and othering forces. The questions we posed in our interviews came from our reading of the literature on gender and hiv. much of the research and discussion about hiv by health-care professionals and policy makers centers on issues such as biological problems and the challenge of finding medical solutions, policy issues regarding access to Arvs, and questions that relate to educational needs such as developing greater knowledge about condoms. These are all important topics that are part of the dominant discourse on hiv as it appears among scholars, professionals, and governmental officials. however , the women we spoke with directed the conversations toward other issues about living with hiv: maintaining relationships with men who may or may not be good partners; working for wages as a way to normalize themselves; deliberating about the disadvantages as well as the benefits of disclosing one’s status to family and friends as the medical and psychological communities dictate; doing care work for men partners and children while living in abusive situations; and coping with or becoming hyperaware of body changes that are brought on as a result of hiv or Arvs. 129 130 | South African Women Living with hiv discourses of normalization: Work and men The distorted perceptions of people who are hiv positive that permeate the media and become part of the thinking of those who are positive, as well as those who are not, make people who are hiv positive seem almost not human. reconstituting oneself as normal and fully human becomes a critical task for people who are living with hiv. two “tools” that the women in our study use as ways to normalize themselves are work and men. Women speak about work as a way to earn wages that can help them meet practical material needs. however, they also speak about work as a way to normalize their lives and themselves. going to work makes them feel that they are worthy individuals taking care of themselves and contributing to their families and the community in general. This sentiment is undoubtedly felt by women in many places in the world, but it is especially characteristic of the experience of coloured women in South Africa. And, importantly, for coloured women in South Africa, earning a wage is also associated with being a woman. in contrast, for example, to white American women in the midtwentieth century, where working for a paycheck was part of being masculine, coloured women in South Africa have historically displayed their femininity by earning wages. under the apartheid regime that existed in South Africa prior to the revolution in 1994, coloured women, especially in the Western cape, sometimes had an advantage over men in the labor market, because women were given preference over men when seeking employment due to the importance of the textile and garment industry in the Western cape province and the dominance of women’s labor in this sector (Salo, 2005). This placed women in many households in the situation of being the primary breadwinners, and certain types of breadwinning evolved into a behavior identified with femininity. Although nearly two decades have now passed since the collapse of the apartheid government, the remnants of this connection are still apparent in women who feel that being a paid worker or...

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