HIV testing among lesbian women: social contexts and subjective meanings.

This study provides descriptive statistics on prevalence of testing, testing sites, and reasons for testing among lesbian women in the United States. It also provides qualitative data about the social meanings and specific circumstances of their HIV testing experiences. Analysis draws on a sample of lesbian women living in a single large southeastern city. An especially diverse snowball and chain-referral sample of 162 lesbian women was given a questionnaire, and qualitative data were gathered from 24 women participating in three focus groups and from 67 women participating in depth-interviews. A large majority of women in the survey sample (80%) reported at least one test, and more than one in four women were tested five or more times. More than one in ten were tested during drug treatment or while incarcerated. The most common testing sites were clinics and hospitals, and the most common reason women gave was because they "thought they were at risk." Most tests were voluntary rather than mandatory occupational or institutional requirements. The subjective meanings associated with HIV testing, as well as the women's counseling needs before, during, and after testing are analyzed. The implications for a better understanding of lesbian women's sexual health are discussed.

"I've tried the switch but he laughs through the tears:" the use and conceptualization of corporal punishment during the Machine Age, 1924-1939.

OBJECTIVE: To examine attitudes, conflicts, images, circumstances, and time-period effects associated with corporal punishment and other forms of adult-to-child violence during the early 20th century in the United States. METHOD: A sample of 147 letters, referencing corporal punishment and dating from 1924 to 1939, were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The letters were addressed to Angelo Patri (1876-1965), a popular child-rearing expert during the interwar years (also known as the Machine Age), and written primarily by middle class parents with everyday worries about child rearing and proper discipline. RESULTS: People who sought advice emphasized the practical significance of corporal punishment over and above the idea that it violated children's rights to be protected against harm. One in four letters cited conflicts with significant others about corporal punishment. Generally, children were perceived as frail, defiant, or feral. Rarely, were they seen as devilish or, conversely, innocent. Children's disobedience and disrespect were cited more than other misbehaviors as reasons for corporal punishment. Age and gender of the focal child varied by time period when letters from the 1920s and 1930s were compared. CONCLUSIONS: A full understanding of parent-to-child violence cannot be achieved without a firm grasp of its genealogy. The growing popularity of child psychology during the Machine Age had a measurable impact on how children were viewed. A utilitarian frame of interpretation was an important part of the everyday "work" associated with child rearing during this time, foreshadowing the tendency today to emphasize efficacy more than rights when evaluating the legitimacy of corporal punishment.

Nuances and shifts in lesbian women's constructions of STI and HIV vulnerability.

This study examines the subjective side of vulnerability as a social construct rooted in interpersonal relationships and community membership. Analysis is based on a survey of an especially diverse sample of 162 lesbian women, 67 of whom also participated in depth interviews. Another 24 of the original sample also participated in transcribed focus groups. One third were African American, Latina, and Asian, and two thirds were white. This sample reported an overall infection rate of 23%. Three subjective stances, or risk frames, are identified: essentially invulnerable, socially inoculated, and fundamentally vulnerable. Some women describe shifts in their interpretations of their own vulnerability, moving from one stance to another in response to obtaining information, becoming infected, having friends or acquaintances who become infected, and becoming involved with new partners. It is suggested that these shifts comprise a subjective "vulnerability career". The significance of lesbian women's constructions of vulnerability is examined, and the implications of this study for a better understanding of their risk for STIs are discussed.