Antibiotics and the Biopolitics of Sex Work in Zimbabwe

Bibliographic Data

ID4564506
AuthorsSalome Manyau (0000-0002-0452-5475, corresponding author), Justin Dixon (0000-0002-7706-7305, Twitter (United States)), Norest Mutukwa, Faith Kandiye, Paula Palanco Lopez (0000-0001-6280-6147), Eleanor E Macpherson (0000-0002-7142-1158, Twitter (United States)), Rashida A Ferrand (0000-0002-7660-9176, Twitter (United States)), Clare Chandler (0000-0001-6499-7522, Twitter (United States))
Year2022
Volume41
Issue3
Pages257-271
Publication date2022-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01459740.2022.2037083
PMID35244502
OpenAlexW4214924829
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited25

The advent of antibiotics transformed the global public health landscape, dramatically improving health outcomes. Drawing on historical and ethnographic research on sex work in Zimbabwe, we examine the role of antibiotics in the management of sexually transmitted infections among sex workers, from punitive colonial approaches to "empowerment"-based discourses. We illustrate how programs for sex workers, while valued by these women, are narrow, exclusionary, and enact a pharmaceuticalized form of governance that hangs on the efficacy of antibiotics. With antibiotics' efficacy under threat, we consider how latent colonial logics are in danger of being reactivated to control both infections and women

Biopower · Business · Colonialism · Corporate governance · Empowerment · Ethnography · Family medicine · Political science · Politics · Public health · Punitive damages · Sex work · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Sex work and related issues

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