[After ten years of AIDS, a vision emanating from feminism]. / A diez anos del SIDA: una vision desde el feminismo.

PIP: AIDS and the economic crisis in Mexico are threatening the epidemiologic transition in which infectious diseases ceased to be the only major cause of death and chronic degenerative diseases began to account for a growing proportion of deaths. Many factors combined to produce the sexual, gay, and women's liberation movements beginning in the 1970s. At the beginning of the feminist movement, women proposed different kinds of interpersonal relations both between women and with men. Women together realized their rights to control their own bodies, to sexual enjoyment, to abortion, and to free themselves of feelings of shame and guilt. The weight of moral pressures was lessened and the personal desires of the woman assumed a greater role in selection of sexual partners. Conservative forces grew stronger in the 1980s, and the proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases began to imperil the sexual revolution. But these setbacks were minor compared to AIDS. Now, 10 years after its appearance, it is clear that AIDS is not limited to homosexual men. The number of cases in Mexico increased from none 10 years ago to some 10,000 estimated cases reported and unreported today. 1/6 of the cases are in women. Many women and heterosexuals felt immune from AIDS in the beginning, and some still do, but many more have become aware of the danger. Women now fear contracting AIDS, but they also fear confronting their partners to suggest that they use condoms. Denial may play a role, but deeply rooted cultural factors that women may recognize but fee powerless to change may also be at play. Many women over 30 have difficulty taking the initiative in sexual matters. They are embarrassed to buy condoms and even more embarrassed to propose their use. They imagine that men will consider them "loose" if they carry condoms. Mexican women are poorly prepared to tell their men explicitly what they want sexually, and Mexican men are also poorly equipped to ask what women want, accustomed as they are to exercising sexuality exclusively to satisfy their own needs. The entire problem of condom use is related to ethical-moral and ideological factors and to broader attitudes toward knowledge. Those with more rational orientations see AIDS as a disease rather than a divine punishment and can more easily accept condom use as a preventive.^ieng