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August 2002, Vol 92, No. 8 | American Journal of Public Health 1227-1237
© 2002 American Public Health Association

PUBLIC HEALTH MATTERS

The Social Constructions of Sexuality: Marital Infidelity and Sexually Transmitted Disease–HIV Risk in a Mexican Migrant Community

Jennifer S. Hirsch, PhD, Jennifer Higgins, BA, Margaret E. Bentley, PhD and Constance A. Nathanson, PhD

Jennifer S. Hirsch is with the Department of International Health, Rollins School of Public Health, and Jennifer Higgins is with the Program in Women’s Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. Margaret E. Bentley is with the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Constance A. Nathanson is with the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Jennifer S. Hirsch, PhD, Department of International Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, NE, Atlanta, GA 30322 (e-mail: jshirsc{at}sph.emory.edu).

Objectives. This article explores the social context of the migration-related HIV epidemic in western Mexico.

Methods. Data collection involved life histories and participant observation with migrant women in Atlanta and their sisters or sisters-in-law in Mexico.

Results. Both younger and older women acknowledged that migrant men’s sexual behavior may expose them to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.Younger Mexican women in both communities expressed a marital ideal characterized by mutual intimacy, communication, joint decisionmaking, and sexual pleasure, but not by willingness to use condoms as an HIV prevention strategy.

Conclusions. Migrant Mexican women’s commitment to an illusion of fidelity will hinder HIV prevention initiatives targeted toward them. Furthermore, the changing meanings of marital sex may make it harder to convince young couples to use condoms as an HIV prevention strategy. If the chain of heterosexual marital HIV transmission is to be interrupted in this community, prevention programs must target men. (Am J Public Health. 2002;92:1227–1237)




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