Beyond internalised stigma

Daily moralities and subjectivity among self-identified kothis in Karnataka, South India

Bibliographic Data

ID15097850
AuthorsLaura H Thompson (0000-0003-3792-9772, University of Manitoba), Shamshad Khan (0009-0004-5517-9682, University of Manitoba), Elsabé du Plessis (University of Manitoba), Lisa Lazarus (0000-0002-7673-4671, Ottawa Hospital), Sushena Reza-Paul (0000-0003-2716-1691), Sushena Reza‐paul (University of Manitoba), Syed Hafeez Ur Rahman, Akram Pasha (0000-0001-5603-4961), Robert Lorway (0000-0001-6923-8832, University of Manitoba, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume15
Issue10
Pages1237-1251
Publication date2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691058.2013.818714
PMID23941386
OpenAlexW2001660913
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited25

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has poured a tremendous amount of resources into epidemic prevention in India's high HIV prevalence zones, through their Avahan initiative. These community-centred programmes operate under the assumption that fostering community-based organisational development and empowering the community to take charge of HIV prevention and education will help to transform the wider social inequalities that inhibit access to health services. Focusing on the South Indian state of Karnataka, this paper explores a troubling set of local narratives that, we contend, hold broader implications for future programme planning and implementation. Although confronting stigma and discrimination has become a hallmark in community mobilisation discourse, communities of self-identified kothis (feminine men) who were involved in Avahan programme activities continued to articulate highly negative attitudes about their own sexualities in relation to various spheres of social life. Rather than framing an understanding of these narratives in psychological terms of 'internalized stigma', we draw upon medical anthropological approaches to the study of stigma that emphasise how social, cultural and moral processes create stigmatising conditions in the everyday lives of people. The way stigma continues to manifest itself in the self-perceptions of participants points to an area that warrants critical public health attention

Framing (construction · Geography · Narrative · Psychiatry · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Subjectivity · Gender Studies · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology

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