ABSTRACT
The appeals that 11 service men filed against the Mexican Army in 2007 for unfair dismissal, on the grounds that they were living with HIV, opened an unprecedented chapter in the relationship between sexuality and the judicial system in Mexico, and in the links between biopower and the processes of democratisation and citizenship in the country. In this article, we analyse this process by looking at claimants' discourses as well as those of the Supreme Court judges. We follow three analytic axes: the relationship between biopower and human rights; the paradoxical place of sexuality in this legal process as an element that is both present and absent in legal debates; and the spectre of homosexuality as the implicit undercurrent of this tense discursive event.
Subject(s)
HIV Infections , Health Services Accessibility/legislation & jurisprudence , Homosexuality, Male , Military Medicine/legislation & jurisprudence , Military Personnel/legislation & jurisprudence , Power, Psychological , Social Stigma , Human Rights , Humans , Male , Mexico , PoliticsABSTRACT
PIP: This article analyzes the social meaning assigned to virginity and sexual initiation in three areas of Mexico. The introduction: 1) notes that such a study may contribute to an understanding of constructs of sexuality, 2) reviews research in sexuality in Mexico, and 3) relates the current study to other qualitative studies of the cultural aspects of sexuality because it focuses on how sexual meanings are constructed. The next section explains how the study's conceptual foundation was influenced by social constructivist accounts of sex and sexuality and reviews the theory underlying the research process. The third section describes the field work conducted among an Indian community that is connected to the larger community, a rural subsistence agricultural village heavily influenced by Catholicism, and a working-class urban neighborhood. Data were gathered from 7 group discussions and in-depth individual interviews with 14 men and 13 women 15-30 years old. Next, the analysis is shown to have revealed recurrence of four major thematic categories that were analyzed in terms of narrative, metaphor, and rhetoric and in terms of dialogue and polyphony. An example is then provided to illustrate how deconstruction was used to interpret the dialogue. The discussion of findings points out that common constructions of meaning in the three communities proved to be as important as differences. The influence of Catholicism, urban culture, and formal education were recognizable and strong in all settings.^ieng