Gendered cultural representations of HIV/AIDS among HIV-negative Israelis: a narrative study

This study explored and compared the cultural representations of men and women living with HIV/AIDS among HIV-negative Israelis. A sample of 20 HIV-negative Israeli men and 23 women was recruited. The participants wrote a story about a 24-year-old man or woman with HIV/AIDS. Reflexive thematic analysis of the stories identified three themes in the narratives about a woman living with HIV/AIDS: (1) The deviant woman theme portrays women as morally transgressing and thus, blameworthy for acquiring HIV/AIDS; (2) The theme of turmoil deals with the women’s immediate reactions to their diagnosis as a tragedy or calamity; (3) The decline theme describes the long-term experience of women living with HIV/AIDS as one of isolation, accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, fear, depression, and other dire emotions. Two themes were identified in the narratives about men living with HIV/AIDS: (1) The women as vectors theme depicts women as temptresses “infecting” men with the virus; (2) The men living with HIV/AIDS theme describes men as attempting to forge a “normal” life despite their condition, while employing various mechanisms to manage potential or actual stigmatization. Overall, the findings suggest that culture does not portray people neutrally, but always through gendered assumptions and norms. Women living with HIV/AIDS are judged more harshly by society than men living with HIV/AIDS.